Proceedings of: Workshop on Improving Building Design for Persons with Low Vision
Jeanne Halloin, IES. Interior Design
Importance of Codes
I think it’s important to know that codes are not bad. I can’t tell you how helpful codes have been through the years. I think we should get away from the idea that they’re not good. There are so many mistakes we could have made over the years if we had not had codes. And I remember when I first moved to Michigan, I would go to this meeting. And I walked across the carpet in Michigan, which can be very cold and very [dry; I was] shocked out of my mind. And I’m thinking, “Somebody didn’t think at all about code,” you know, the static electricity in carpeting.
There are all kinds of codes that really are helpful. I taught building specifications for commercial interiors. I tried to tell them, “Codes are really your friend. It helps you so much [to specify the] right thing and to know what to ask suppliers and manufacturers [about] materials that you’re going to use.
Motivational Characteristics
You already know these things because you’ve already agreed pretty much on what motivational characteristics are:
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Low vision makes us more dependent on our environment (slide 3)
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Aging does the same as we compensate for increasing frailty and sensory loss (slide 3).
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Low Vision Characteristics (slide 4):
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Need more light.
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More sensitive to glare.
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Slower to adapt to different light levels.
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Function better with high contrast on surfaces and tasks.
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Good Lighting (slide 5).
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Light levels adequate for the visual task.
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Fixture design to promote glare reduction or elimination.
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Fixtures placement to avoid direct & reflected glare, and shadows.
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Light levels that are fairly uniform while still providing areas of interest.
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[For example,] when we talk about defining edges of things: white is a better definer of an edge than a dark color.
One reason I feel that way is one of the first facilities that I was involved with was an assisted-living community, and there was an Alzheimer’s area.
What they would do is sometimes, in front of a doorway, there would be a cutout in the carpet and there would be a black circle there. It’s because Alzheimer’s patients wander continuously. A lot of them move all the time. And they were wandering into these spaces and taking things. So if they [staff] put a black circle in the carpet, and even though it wasn’t huge, they [patients] thought it was a hole, and they wouldn’t cross that area.
[Also the patients] had bracelets, but they could still go out [of] the doors and then we’d have to find them. So [staff] would put stripes on a flat area near the doors. [The patients] would think there were steps [at the area] and they couldn’t take their wheelchair out there or they were afraid to navigate them.
So black is not a color I’d use if I’m trying to help people get somewhere, because I know it’s a color that is used to prevent people from going places.
Material Characteristics (slide 6)
Matte Finishes
Other just general things that are important. Matte finishes (slide 6) are always better than specular surfaces or polished granite. And that can be columns, and it can even be lighting fixtures.
When I was photographing assisted-living communities for a research study, we went to this one craft room and there were women playing cards. There were about five sets of women playing cards, but the tables were rectangular. So you would have one here, one there, and, like, two over there.
I knew there was a game room, so I asked them, “Why are you playing [in the craft room] with these tables?” And they said, “Because in the game room, where they have the square tables, the lighting fixture isn’t good and it puts a lot of glare. The table is polished, and it puts a lot of glare on the table. Plus it’s shiny brass. So they had a direct glare vision, and then they also had a reflected glare vision. So they were just accommodating themselves by using different spaces, not for the intended purpose.
That’s what people are going to do in these facilities. They’re going to make [the facilities] work, even if it isn’t as convenient.
Light [Reflective] Values
You [have] already said that’s one way to use less energy, to get better light in the room, because you’re talking about reflected light and how these are reflected. [Light Reflective] Values [LRV] are on every paint chip. They are on ceiling tiles. I mean, they’re on your materials, so it’s not at all hard to find them. That’s why it’s important to come in early [in the design process], so that you have all of the [LRVs] before you start doing [detailed design].
Glass Surfaces
Glass doors, countertops and freestanding display cases should be really defined well. I think they shouldn’t be used a lot, and we should use them very sparingly. And when they are used, you have the problem of really making them visually seen.
This is the entrance to the Brooklyn Museum (slide 7). And this is the one where there were so many steps that they eliminated the steps. But now it’s hard for people to find which ones of those [glass panels] are doors. And a lot of the [glass panels] have black vertical graining in them but aren’t doors, and some of them are. So by the time you find the sign, you’ve gone to several different areas to find them. But then when you come in, you see you also have the glare [from] the door[s and glass panels] (slide 8).
On the other hand, look how easy it is not to walk into those statues. I mean, they’re a great contrast. They’re right out in the middle of the space, but they’re very easy to see. And the bases are [raised and] a little bigger than the [statues] themselves, but still [present a stumbling] problem.
Value Contrast (slide 9)
Fixed Surfaces
To show where vertical and horizontal surfaces meet is very important. To show edges is very important. And one place where this is really important, even though you’re no longer allowed to run carpeting up to become a baseboard because of cleaning or health issues, a lot of times the baseboard will be painted the same color as the flooring.
And when you do that, even if they have pretty darn good vision, [people have] the feeling that that wall, which they may be leaning toward or using to help them become stable isn’t where they think it is. So [through] peripheral vision, it [appears to be in] a different place.
So it’s really important to make that definition of where the change is, not from partway up and then make the change. And so very often you’ll see a handrail that’s darker than the wall, and then they’ll make the baseboard darker than the wall too. But then it matches the value on the floor. So it causes a problem.
Furniture and open spaces
There are so many cases of dark furniture on dark carpeting or on patterned floors, and also white leather furniture on white or very light floors. And those are very difficult to see. Even if you’re looking down and expecting to have to look for a clear path, those are very hard to see, because they’re quite low. A lot of those benches are knee height or below. And that to me is the same as having something stick up from the floor. But quite often they’re open underneath, so you can fix that easily, though, by putting contrasting colors.
This is inside our museum gallery (slide 10). [When] they want to show off the art work, they often make all the finishes the same. So the walls and the floor and the ceilings and even the stands the things are on are all similar. But some of them do have a good shadow where that little darker wood base is. Some of them don’t.
But what you often see when you go into galleries or even office buildings is, if they have a hazard there, they’ll put four [posts] and then they’ll put a rope. Well, it’s not only hard to see it, but a cane goes right underneath the rope, and so people get embarrassed more than hurt, because they usually stop by the time they walk into the rope, and then all these metal posts are falling over. And that’s really common today.
Even though you want the art to show up, this space should have been a different value, a darker value in the floor and then the bases [a lighter value]. But you need a change there.
Signage (slide 11)
Location, location, location, especially in relationship to the light sources. And then reverse contrast is better because you don’t have the glare from the background. They really should be solid at floor level, and, not shadowed, as you [lean in to read]. Auditory signs can be an option.
Orientation (slide 12)
This was already brought up. Floor-plan organization, if it’s consistent from floor to floor, it’s much easier for people to navigate. If circulation areas do not have curves and non-right angles, it’s much easier for people to navigate, and if waiting areas are kept separate from the circulation areas.
You know, any time you go through [circulation areas], not when you get to the end. But as you go down the line, the waiting areas are separate. We don’t always do that in public spaces, and we don’t always do that even in office buildings. But there are a lot of buildings where [separation is provided by] an area rug or a change of floor color: “that’s the furnished area that’s [the waiting area] right adjacent or to one side.
Comment by [Participant]: New office space also. There’s plans where they want people to eat outside of the work area, so they’ll put them in the corridor space. And it’s undefined, separate [area].
Response by Jeanne Halloin: It can be a real problem.
Visual Busyness (slide 13)
And I want to also say avoid visual busyness because we’ve been saying contrast is really [overused]; I think you have to use contrast sparingly. All of a sudden the place is so busy that you’re trying to take in too much information. And if it’s hard to see, it takes you a long time to take in all that information.
So I think what you have to do is use the contrast on the edges of things to tell you where the edge of the counter is, to tell you where the floor meets the wall, to tell you when something sits out [and protrudes into the[ space, to tell you when there’s a freestanding object. But you don’t want to then start balancing it by just putting it all over.
And you see that. Sometimes you see it in the ceiling pattern, but the ceiling isn’t all that high and you have all these beams running across. You look at it. The first thing you see is there’s a lot going on here, and so you feel like you have to really [concentrate]. And we can avoid that by making spaces simpler, avoid alternating light and dark areas.
Lighting Applications
Wayfinding
And again, I agree that we do use light to direct people. It’s a fabulous way to direct people. You can have a little meeting area, a little cafe across from the university campus, and because there’s windows in the front, if anybody walks by and looks in, and if the people are all sitting there, you think it’s full, so you don’t go in. But you can use light to make them all go to the back, and then it’s more empty in the front, and then they keep getting people in.
Behavior Modification
I mean, there’s tons of ways. We use lighting to tell you how to behave. We use lighting to tell you the sheets in the store are really expensive. We use lighting to tell you this is a discount store; things are probably going to be cheap. It’s not that we use less expensive lighting or lighting, but we use really good color [rendition].
But we know, for example, if an elevator door opens and this area is lit much better than that, 90-some percent of the people will go there. So we use light to tell you how to behave, to direct you, tell you where to go, to make you follow a path we want you to follow.
Lighting Performance
So I think we can do that and still not have our lighting levels be dramatically different or not have them use spotlights to make things bleary and confusing. And also, as someone talked about earlier, you just have perimeter lighting sort of like this (slide 14), where you have all these [sconce lighting fixtures].
There were a number of slides we saw today where the tops of the walls were really dark (slide 15). It made the hall space look smaller and lower. And there’s a lot of recess perimeter lighting that just gives you a wash down that wall. It’s inexpensive lighting to run, but we [have alternatives that are] a lot less expensive than they are.
But you can just come in early in a job. You can design it into the architecture and not have to buy all those fixtures. So you can get a lot of good perimeter lighting without having to start adding things later (slides 16 and 17). And that’s a huge advantage to coming in early.
Another thing I wanted to point out is lighting has a lot to do with our sense of security. I have gone back to projects, even recently a project I did where I was above the IES standard for lighting for the public restrooms, but it was a facility where people didn’t know each other and there wasn’t a community where the same people were always there, and they didn’t feel comfortable in the restrooms because of the lighting level. It was easy to add some more lighting, so we did.
There was a study done where there was one person at a table, and someone would come in, like, over in another part of the room, and they would fill out a questionnaire. They thought the questionnaire was what the study was on. The study was actually on lighting. But then they were asked to turn their questionnaire in to the person at the table, and there were only that subject and the person at the table.
If the lighting level was low, they would kind of reach and put it on the table, and they would not come close to the person at the table. They wanted to keep their distance. If the lighting level was higher, they would come right up there and they would talk to the person at the table and feel more comfortable.
So I think if we keep lowering our lighting levels, we don’t feel as safe. We don’t feel as secure. We’re a little more frightened of using public spaces in places we don’t know people. There’s psychological affects as well as the safety affects.
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