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How many business and organizations pay heed to the experiences and needs of partially sighted or blind people when designing their places of business?
While architecturally we all like to be wowed and of course design is a massive marketing tool in this day and age a recent study by the Kingston University Trust has thrown up the issue of poor entrance and door design that has a serious impact on the freedom and independence of patients with poor vision and sight loss.
As far as housing design is concerned, personal front doors and exits can be just as bad, with a lack of confidence in being able to tackle the problem, sight loss patients can feel trapped and ultimately isolated by not being able to safely tackle the routes in and out of home.
Lighting inside and out of any exterior door has been reported as a major difficulty as people find it hard to make adjustments to varying levels. Just under three quarters of the study group all reported light levels as being a real difficulty. A third struggled with steps that were not clearly defined round the edges and just under half could not cope with various locks and handles.
The Trust has already offered up their report findings to assist in future design for services and products.