What can architects do to improve the spatial experience for blind and visually impaired persons?

Abstract

Worldwide, around 1.3 billion people have a form of visual impairment or blindness. 217 million of them suffer from severe visual impairment. Communication with visually impaired and blind persons doesn’t occur on the same way as people with normal vision and other senses than the visual sense need to be used. Other senses are also important for visually impaired in order to understand the environment and space they are in. Sound, touch, smell are much more important for this group of people. In architecture and more broadly in the society as a whole, historically the visual sense has been dominating. An architect or designer often thinks “visually” and relies heavily on graphic images. Throughout history an ocular bias has been present and lately this has been enforced by technological advancements. The visual sense is seen as a sense that is distant whereas other senses such as touch and hearing are considered to be more intimate. Some contemporary architects have broken with the ocular bias and have successfully integrated multiple senses in their designs. The principles of universal design provide interesting guidelines to create useable designs for all people, including people with disabilities and therefore visual impairment..............