The Development of an Accessible Learning Framework for Severely Visually-impaired Students in the Architectural Studio: a Case Study

Studio based education in architecture is often inaccessible to students with disabilities. With regard to visual impairment as a disability, the architectural studio not only has its own characteristics in terms of navigation and accessing information, but is an environment where visual forms of communication and the employment of high level spatio-cognitive abilities are the norm. This study concerns a student whose visual impairment is sufficient to allow for registration as a blind person. It describes the problems raised and the solutions found in providing the student with an accessible studio environment. By referring to both experimental and theoretical work on spatio-cognitive abilities and visual impairment, these results are placed in a general context with significance to a wide range of conditions.