INCLUSIVE DESIGN APPROACH FOR VISUAL ACCESSIBILITY OF STREET ENVIRONMENTS

Abstract

The report attempts to explain the dissertation proposal titled „Inclusive Design Approach for Visual Accessibility of Streets‟. People with vision impairment face difficulty while orienting themselves and moving through streets, as they have difficulty seeing, interpreting and understanding the visual information of the spatial environment. Barrier free environment is not sufficient on its own to improve accessibility for people with vision impairment. Improvement of spatial orientation and analysis of visual quality of streets is necessary to improve the street environments. The report explains the need of studying and improving visual accessibility of streets to build a more inclusive society. Present scenario of the vehicle centric Indian cities with shifting focus towards pedestrians and cyclists and still not much attention to inclusion of all user groups is discussed. The problems of barriers to accessibility and inadequacy in design are described. Terminological meanings of Inclusive Design, Universal Design, Accessible Design , Barrier-Free Design, Principles of Inclusive design from Global and Indian context are explored. The types of vision impairment, what people with vision impairment see, the problems faced by them while navigating, orienting and moving through streets are discussed. Case studies of five German streets and two Indian streets of similar context were conducted to analyse their visual quality and accessibility through a prepared checklist. The study expects to produce tangible recommendations and strategies for improving visual accessibility of streets for inclusive mobility of people with vision impairment.