Questionnaires for Optometrists'

Today I went to two major high street opticians to see if they could spare some time to answer some questions for me. Unfortunately when I came back after 4 hours, both returned the questionnaire blank and said that the optometrists didn't have any time to fill it out. However the optometrists at D&A did point out that the questions were too specific for her to answer and advised me to go to a centre in Colliers Wood who provide support and information for the visually impaired and kindly handed me a leaflet. Looking at the leaflet I noticed that it was printed in large print with simple colours of black, white and blue. There are no pictures and symbols displayed which could suggest that they are not neccessary to a person who has low vision. Although my questionnaires were not filled out (which felt quite dissapointing) I do feel glad that I was redirected to a more specific centre and hope that I make that visit sometime this week. I think the colours and the layout of this leaflet will benefit me towards my development.

Visually Impaired Skier Living Olympic Dream

Canadian cross-country skier Brian Mckeever talks about how his sight isn't going to stop his dream of winning medals. He is the first to become a winter sport athlete to compete in the Olympics and Paralympics who is visually impaired.

Let's Walk to the Shops Experiment

Today I thought it would be a good experience to walk to the shops and buy something without wearing my lenses. It was quite a difficult experience and quite painfully straining (but thats because I'm constantly trying to put my vision back into focus). I remember not trusting much on my sight and noticing how everything around me seemed to be louder (as I was depending on my other senses). Whilst crossing the roads I would actually look left AND right (I should be doing this anyway...) but with more caution. Whilst in the shop... with the amount of chocolate bars stacked together it did take me a while to find the Snickers bar... and the colours just seemed to blur together. Paying for the chocolate, I noticed how the 50p and the 10p looked and felt the same to be... and it was only when I looked closer that I saw the ridged corners... I felt misled by my touch senses.

I felt the experience has made me think more whether to allow users to experience my final piece just how a person with visual impairment will do. I think it will create such a great understand for everyone and it will become very educational and just a good experience. How do you know if the product is successful if you can visualise it through the eyes of the intentional user?

Signage to device

At the start of my project I was initally planning to create some sort of way finidng solution for the partially blind and help them navigate them around the University. This could be a section of the corridor leading to the stair case... and was thinking of some sort of bright bold plain colours being used... and possibly lights intsallation. However I feel that this wasn't a suitable solution because pavements with raised bumps are already available on the streets, and with the bold colours and light installations I feel the project could have progressed further. Also the 'signage' solution will be uniquely made for the University only and so I feel it is quite a restricted solution, although I can imagine it being altered for a different environment if needed.

I am starting to think about creating some sort of Podcast that can be available for users to download. This could be a weekly Podcast of what galleries are available and how to get to them and what is in the gallery. Almost a cross between the audio devices available at galleries already and Timeout magazine. After doing some research today it struck me how Braille is used just for literacy and nothing else. What if we can push the boundaries of Braille and make it graphical and enjoyable? Could we slant the braille on the side.... create big braille with small braille on the front cover? Maybe it could collaborate with the Podcast as a back to back weekly magazine/podcast feature.

Research

I have researched in some of the foundations of partial blindness; things such as the different definitions of partial blindess- this helped me know the different categories and the terminologies used in the condition. Partial blindness is a condition that is commonly caused by diseases such as diabetes, which has made me realise that the person would have experienced or seen bits of the world before loosing their sight.. Therefore their memory of some things become at help when using things. Other things which I found useful on the Low-vision.org website was the images of how people with low vision see and then it made me think for the final piece I could create some sort of goggles or glasses for users to experience the space like a person with visual impairment. This could be easy to do but since there are many types of partial blindness.. would I do one type or do them all? Because of the variety it would be overwhelming to make but it could be a very good experience for users to understand that there are different types of visual loss which is the reason why some solutions already available do not work for some.