Signs for the blind – if you can find them
Many places these days quite rightfully do what they can to help out blind people, with Braille messages in appropriate places to give them at least some idea of the sighted world they’re navigating. Take this example from one of the buildings on campus:
The people who installed this door thought were open-minded people, and decided that a bit of Braille could be useful to the blind community. Unfortunately, they put it in the one place where it would be least useful:
That’s right, they put it on the sign next to the door. It’s hard enough to blind people to navigate around and find doors as it is, and finding the correct door is frankly beyond my comprehension. But if I were in that situation, I’d guess that any indication of what lay beyond the door would be on the door itself, either in the middle or somewhere in the handle (or push-plate in this case). In fact, I’m pretty sure that’s what the good people at StockSigns were expecting too. What neither I nor (I hope) StockSigns would expect of blind people is to flail around the wall near the door in the hope of finding some information that’s of use to them.
In another part of the same building, there’s a cafeteria. There are four or five signs beside the door of this nature, pointing the direction to various other campus facilities. Not only are the signs equally hard to find, but someone had the brilliant ruse of putting the condiment stand in front of them, thereby making absolutely certain the Braille is completely useless.
Good work from the university on thinking of getting signs to help the blind. Complete failure in using them as such.
December 30, 2011
Tags:
design, disability
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