Kitchenware for Users with Sight Loss

British product designer Simon Kinneir uses "subtle sensory feedback" to help users with visual impairment.

"If somebody has sight loss, it's not black and white. If someone has hearing loss, we don't have to make huge iterations to our environments products and services, but actually we can give subtle cues and people can work with those.
Self-confidence in the kitchen improves self-sufficiency for people with sight loss. Whether through temperature, sound, or movement, these products amplify active processes in the task at hand."
Simon Kinneir 

"The Leaven jug features a slanted container made of stainless steel, suspended in a tubular metal framework with an angled base. As the jug is filled up its balance changes, causing it to tip forward slightly so a user touching its frame knows when it is nearly full." (via Dezeen)



image via Dezeen

Blind People Describe Racism

Braille Menus

"In a survey run in conjunction with the Macular Society, the entrepreneur found that 87 per cent of visually impaired diners rely on their companions to read the menu aloud. Mr Wadsworth added: 'The hope is that, with the app, everyone at the table is more equal, making dining out more dignified for everyone.'"
J. Merrill

More:
- The Diner With the Braille Menu (2017): LINK
- A menu that speaks for itself: Blind entrepreneur launches app to revolutionise eating out for Britain's visually impaired (2013): LINK
- Major restaurants now have Braille menus for the blind, but there is still a void (2016): LINK
- Visually-Impaired Teen Starts Clever Braille Menu Business (2012): LINK
- Making the case for greater access to Braile menus (2016): LINK

Kitchenware for visually impaired users

"If somebody has sight loss, it's not black and white. If someone has hearing loss, we don't have to make huge iterations to our environments products and services, but actually we can give subtle cues and people can work with those."
Simon Kinneir, British product designer

Kids Describe Colour to a Blind Person

Traveleyes

Traveleyes is a tour operator that organises group holidays for both blind and sighted travellers. Each day, a blind traveller is paired with a different sighted traveller making sure that people taking part are getting to know each other (via 101 Holidays). It was founded by Amar Latif in 2004.

"As a sighted traveller, you’ll share your sight and help to make the world accessible. At the same time, you’ll be guided yourself in an exploration of your other senses – you’ll be amazed at what you’ve been missing! No experience of blindness is necessary as full training and support are provided."

::: More: Traveleyes

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photograph via Amar Latif

The Cane Debate: Standard Colour of White or Coloured to Represent a Person's Individuality?

Tactile Paving: Messages to Visually Impaired Pedestrians

Accessibility App Simulates Colourblindness

An Android app developed by Bill Anderson this year helps both designers and developers experience colourblind vision in order to apply accessibility to their work (The Costa Rica Star).

"The Colorblind Simulator app for Android is a collection of simulation tools. It includes tools for images, text, Material Design colors, and any single RGB color. Currently, it is the only color blindness simulation toolbox available for Android."

::: Colorblind Simulator Pro: LINK

More:
- Coblis - Color Blindness Simulator: LINK
- Ishihara Color Test: LINK
- Color Blind Check (free test app): LINK
- Color Blindness - learn all about it: LINK

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Images via Google

Seeing Again ... With Visual Prosthetics

"The researchers Elisa Castaldi and Maria Concetta Morrone implanted the Argus II retinal prosthesis system in seven patients with retinitis pigmentosa, one of many retinal degenerative conditions that lead to blindness. The system sends small light pulses to the retina’s remaining cells, bypassing damaged photoreceptors, and stimulating the few remaining retinal cells. These cells then transmit this visual information along the optic nerve to the brain, allowing the person to perceive light patterns, and eventually see again. Before the surgery, all of the patients had been blind for 20 years. At the most, they had bare light perception."

“We tested the ability of our patients to detect big and high contrast shapes presented very briefly. When using the prosthetic implant, they reached up to 90 percent accuracy in this task.”  Elisa Castaldi

Via/More: mental_floss

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Image via beye

Microsoft's Seeing Artificial Intelligence

"Saqib is a core Microsoft developer living in London, who lost the use of his eyes at age 7. He found inspiration in computing and is helping build Seeing AI, a research project that helps people who are visually impaired or blind to better understand who and what is around them. The project is built using intelligence APIs from Microsoft Cognitive Services." (Microsoft)

Lighting, Low Vision & Building Codes

"The assumed lighting restrictions associated with the ANSI/ASHRAE/IES 90.1 energy standard are fundamentally based upon recommended light levels found in the Illuminating Engineering Society’s (IES) Lighting Handbook. These light levels are historically based upon the needs of normally sighted people. The solitary goal of the energy code has been to reduce energy consumption by imposing limits on the amount of power that can be used for lighting per floor area and therefore ignores quality of light, health, safety and hours of use. While mandating greater use of daylight will help reduce daytime energy use, glare and contrast are quality of light issues yet to be addressed.

Quantity and quality of light are the crucial elements for the low vision population. This presentation will review how we account for these while accommodating the restrictions in the energy code as well as other building codes and standards such as the NFPA, IBC and LEED. Recently, the power densities for senior care facilities in the 90.1 regulation standard were increased substantially after a convincing case was made based on scientific research. Although this increase was made for limited space types, this action paves the way for broader changes to the various building codes in an effort to support the low vision population.

It is time that universal design went beyond mobility and addressed sensory loss, including low vision; to truly be “universal” design."

Full article:
::: Dupuy, R., Guarnaccia, G. & Noell-Waggoner, E. (2013). Lighting, Low Vision & Building Codes. DOWNLOAD

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photograph via Curated

Lego for the blind

Finding Braille Signs

Wochenende

Enjoy your weekend with the Inner Vision Orchestra!

21 October 2016

A watch designed for blind people

"We started out thinking about what kind of watch would work for blind users and we struck upon this idea of using ball bearings rotating around a track to indicate the minutes and the hours on the dial."
David Zacher

"Designer Hyungsoo Kim was in a lecture hall at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in September 2011 when a neighbouring student asked him the time. "My classmate is visually impaired, and had been for 10 years," explains Kim. The student had a watch that could tell the time, but only by pressing a button that would make it speak out loud. Doing so in a classroom could be disruptive, so instead, says Kim, "I was his wristwatch."
BBC

"Manufacturers of accessible goods for blind people have discovered that producing something functional isn't enough - blind people always ask what it looks like, even though they can't see. In some ways, this suggests that it matters more if you're trying to control what people might think of you."
Damon Rose

"The watch is named after Bradley Snyder, an ex-naval officer who lost his eyesight in an explosion in Afghanistan in 2011 and who went on to win gold and silver medals at the London 2012 Paralympic Games."
Dezeen

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Image via Slice of MIT

Celebrate #ThisAbility

Wayfindr

According to a survey carried out by the Royal London Society for the Blind (RLSB), a quarter of the visually-impaired youth are nervous about taking buses, trains or the underground in London. RLSB teamed up with the London-based design studio Ustwo to create an app that helps visually-impaired riders navigate underground subways.

"Called Wayfindr, the mobile app locates the user’s location within a subway station by picking up signals emitted from bluetooth “beacons” that have been strategically placed throughout. The signals prompt the app to provide spoken instructions that tell users which station they’re entering, for example, how many steps a particular staircase has, and which trains are to their right and left. The app even issues an alert when users approach the end of an escalator." (CityLab)

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Photograph via RLSB

Blindenkongress erstmals in Graz, 1.August - 5. August 2016

"Mehr als 600 Experten sind am Montag in Graz beim europaweit größten Kongress für Blinden- und Sehbehindertenpädagogik zu Gast. Es geht um neue Errungenschaften in den Bereichen Technik und Medizin." Zum Artikel (ORF Steiermark)

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Foto: Odilieninstitut Graz (via/© odilien.at)

The World's Largest Braille Network

"Being able to identify where I am without having to concentrate on orientation methods such as counting streets makes trips through the city far more pleasurable now. The signs are easy to locate and read, whether you are reading the braille or raised print."

Sydney has launched the world's largest braille and tactile network for blind and visually impaired pedestrians. More than 2.100 braille and raised-letters signs (aluminium panels featuring street names and building numbers) have been installed at pedestrian crossings next to push buttons to make the city more accessible and safer (News). In addition, people with speech or hearing impairments would "not have to rely on passersby for help with directions, allowing them to retain their independence and dignity".
In 2013, the City of Sydney had road tested prototype tactile street signs. It was, in fact, one of the first cities to install tactile signs for the visually impaired in the 1990s (City of Sydney).

::: DOWNLOAD: City of Sydney (2016) Legible Sydney Design Manual

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Photograph via John O'Callaghan/Twitter