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| Plastic bag activity |
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Walking down stairs in library with help from handrail and contrasting black markings on the edge of each stair.
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| Accessible ATM! |
Since my next project has a focus on designing for someone with a visual disability, I have taken the time to learn more about what someone under those circumstances faces on an everyday basis. With a classmate, I went to the Compton Union Building on the WSU campus and together we guided each other through the space wearing sunglasses with petroleum jelly on them to create a visual impairment. The experience was eye opening. My partner guided me respectfully through the book store onto the elevator, also up and downstairs, and we also attempted to use an ATM machine. Before beginning our experiment we looked though a plastic bag and tried to read a newspaper. Personally I could only read the headlines and see the colors in pictures. This represented a person with 20/60 vision. When we folded the bag in half and tried to look through it was as if we were legally blind. The feeling was very different. All I could make out were colors and blurry people. One thing that I compared was the stairs in the library versus the stairs leading up to the Senior ballroom. The stairs in the library were white with black grip on the edges of each step. This made it very easy to navigate on my own because I could differentiate between steps. On the other hand, the stairs up to the ballroom were green and I could not tell the steps apart when I began to climb them so I needed assistance. The lack of contrast made it very difficult. Also, another design feature that made the CUB accessible to those with visual disabilities was the Chase ATM, unlike the ATM downstairs which only had a blinking light by the card insert, the Chase ATM had an audio feature for the visually impaired. Also, the buttons on the keypad were easy to read because the color of the numbers contrasted with the background.
Overall this experience was great and it has showed me how important contrast can be in design. Technology can truly assist in helping people make life easier and accessible for all.
