The other day I was given the chance to see what life would look like with different types of visual disabilities. My classmates and I used sheets of plastic to perform 2 visual experiments. First we looked though 2 layers of plastic then through 4. 
The image below on the upper left is how most of us would see the world. The image on the right is what things would look like looking through 4 layers of plastic. A visual disability like this would make it really hard for one to make out specific objects and surfaces, but what can be seen are colors and shapes. Knowing this can help for designing a space for a person who happens to see the world in a similar way. For example, if the individual can clearly depict colors and shapes rather than 
After we saw the hallway with different type of visual impairments we placed on sunglasses that had a film of transparent paste. It made it hard to see where we where going and made it hard to walk because sometime we didn't know where we were walking. I almost fell a few times.We tried using a local ATM to see if we could use it well with the glasses on. On the ATM we saw that their where some color coded pads. The number pad was green, and the slot to slide your card in was red. These things made it easy to now where to place our hands when we where using it. The ATM also had button that where raised from the pad so one could fell for them. The buttons also had braille on them so if one was visually impaired if they knew braille then it would be easier for them to use it.
We also walked through our library one our campus and walked down the stairs. The black strips that the steps had made it easy to know where the end of a step was and when a new one started. This helped use not fall down the stairs.
This was an eye opening experiences. Now I can apply what I have learned to designing a better space.
Uris Giron
No comments:
Post a Comment