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People with vision impairment are aided by simple, straightforward building design, which adheres to the following principles:
- Design should be based upon right angles. Diagonal, curved or circular elements should be avoided wherever possible.
- People with vision impairment can orient themselves more successfully and move about a building with more assurance if a right-angled design system has been used. This particularly applies to corridors and external paths.
- People with vision impairment should be able to walk from one destination to another with as few changes of direction as possible and without having to avoid obstructions into circulation routes. The arrangement of furniture in a room and the sitting of rooms within a building should also reflect this principle. (Figure 1& 2)
- Large open areas should be broken down into smaller areas. People with vision impairment feel less secure the further they are away from “landmarks” such as walls and furniture.
- Large open areas can be made more manageable by establishing rectangular areas and clear pathways with partitioning and furniture.
- Expanses of carpet, vinyl or concrete can make it difficult for people with vision impairment to maintain a straight direction when walking. Floor surface cues can be provided, which can help prevent people veering from their course. Tactile pathways, for example, can help lead people directly to their destination.
- If possible, corridors and other major internal circulation routes should be constructed of a hard surface rather than of carpet. To a person with vision impairment, hard surfaces generally indicate thoroughfares, whereas carpet usually indicates the likelihood of obstacles such as furniture.
- Atriums and rooms of multi-storey height should be avoided if possible. They reduce the number of the visually identifiable elements in a room, they create acoustic differences and they are more difficult to illuminate evenly.
- Thoroughfares and circulation areas should be free of obstacles. Telephones, bins, fire equipment, lockers, planter boxes, switchboards etc. should be recessed or positioned around the perimeter. The main entrance to buildings should be easily accessible
- The base of structures should be able to be located with a long cane. Structures, furniture and fittings, which leave space underneath, can be a hazard to people with vision impairment.
- Wash basins should be placed within “cupboard style” vanity basins. Staircases should be fully enclosed and without overhang. Free-hanging head height cupboards should not be used unless waist-height cupboards are placed under them or Tactile Ground Surface Indicators installed.
- Important function areas, for example staircases, lifts, lavatories and waiting areas, should be placed as centrally as possible.
- People with vision impairment will more readily negotiate a building if important design elements are consistently repeated throughout. They will feel more secure and move more freely if they can predict that the width and surfaces of corridors, stairs and pathways, the height of handrails and switches. It will also assist if the colour of doors and the signage will be the same in every part of the building, or are consistent for a specific floor or area of functioning.
- Colour contrast between side-by-side elements can provide helpful visual cues to a person with residual vision. Sufficient contrast between colour surfaces will assist with identification of objects and differentiation between objects and their background.
- Contrast can also add a sense of three-dimensionality, for example, markings on the nosings of stairs and the corners of walls and the contrast of hand rails with corridor and lift-walls.
- When selecting colours it is important that contrast is seen in the context of the overall colour range within a room rather than just between two side-by-side surfaces. While it is not difficult to choose a door colour to contrast with a wall colour, the colours of the surrounding floor surfaces, door furniture and signage must also influence the final choice.
- When selecting the colours of larger objects it is important that there is sufficient depth of colour to allow the object to be differentiated from its surroundings when viewed from a distance. Black or dark edging around doorframes and where walls meet floor surfaces will provide additional definition to colour surfaces.
- As a general rule, the ceiling colour should be sufficiently different from the wall colour. The wall colour should be sufficiently different from the ceiling colour and the floor colour. The door or door frame colour should sufficiently different from the wall colour. Patterned flooring makes it difficult to locate dropped objects.
- Doors
- General lighting
- Stairs
- Handrails
- Tactile ground surface indicators
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