DESIGN TO LOW VISION:
AN INTERACTIVE APPROACH

Low vision is a term used to describe the remaining vision in people who have seriously impaired vision due to several disorders and who have lower than 33% (or lower than 0,33 or 20/60 in the Snellen scale) in the better eye. This condition cannot be corrected with common glasses, surgery or medication. The low vision can occur in children and in the elderly people, this last one being the biggest group. The main causes of low vision in the elderly people are age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy. With the progressive aging of the world population and no next horizon for curing the severe cases of these disorders, we´ll have a growing incidence of low vision in the world population. The low vision patients have the indication of appropriate equipment to enhance the size of the image so as to promote useful vision. When we design for the visually impaired people we have to keep in mind their real needs and must design in a way not to stigmatize this kind of patient, taking into account people as a whole, with their physical, psychological, social, economic and leisure necessities. In the case of  low vision people, with the amount of vision (visual acuity) between 10% and 5% (or between 0,1 and 0,05 or between 20/200 and 20/400 in the Snellen scale), we have good results with magnifiers. The way we provide the magnification for them will determine the success or failure of a low vision device.

We performed a participative observation of low vision patients at the Low Vision Section of the Ophthalmology Department - Hospital das Clínicas, University of Sao Paulo School of Medicine in Sao Paulo/Brazil. We verified the low vision people´s main needs concerning the now existing devices for reading at near distance in their daily activities. We observed the needs of this group, mainly when using the existing devices for low vision and concluded that these devices were not ergonomic, particularly when they had to maintain a comfortable reading position. Based on these data, we purposed an innovative equipment for low vision people to could make reading easier and more comfortable. We identified possible design interventions that could contribute to an easier use of these devices through a project that fulfilled the main needs formerly verified and invested in a design that, beyond fulfilling these needs, had aesthetic qualities that could stimulate these people in their everyday life.

It was developed an ergonomic (patented) equipment that permitted, in the initial observations, a more comfortable reading. This device can provide this low vision population a better life quality.

We can conclude that it can be possible to develop innovative reading design solutions aiming more comfort and better life quality for this ever growing low vision population and also making a design that helps them not to be stigmatized.

BONATTI, Fernanda A. S. Terapia com Design: desenvolvimento de equipamento brasileiro de auxílio à visão subnormal ou baixa visão. Revista Design em foco, v.II, n.1 jan/jun 2005, pp. 27-39. 
SANTOS, Maria Cecília Loschiavo dos  Por um design para a vida . Revista Design & Interiores, Ano 1/06, pp. 54-58, 1988.
WHITELEY, Nigel  Design For Society  London: Reaktion Books, 1993.