How Losing My Sight Made Me a Better Designer
The design world is woefully deficient in creating positive, equal experiences for people with disabilities
One isn’t bad
I bent over one day and like ink swirling into a glass of water, there it was. A coil of thick, pulsing threats. I didn’t know what it was saying to me, but I knew it was menacing. It’s been three years since a retinal specialist told me I had degenerative retinal disease.
Designing with one eye in 2D is actually not hard. It’s all the stuff around it that accompanies vision loss. It’s the depth-perception loss, people assuming you can see them and giving way, being snuck up on accidentally 100 times a day. The fear is the worst. After six surgeries on the right eye, you start to lose hope that you will see for much longer. I began feeling clinched with anxiety that one morning I would open my eyes and the good eye would be swirling with night.
I started to carry a folding white cane with me in my backpack. So I could make it home if I needed to.
The problem is the lack of parity in the usability and context of experience for able people and for people using assistive technology.
