Author:

Abstract:

Our research explores whether and how the expertise gained by the experience of living with a disability can be disclosed to expand prevailing ways of understanding and designing space. This presentation will focus on how we try to gain access to the spatial experience of people living with particular abilities and conditions. People involved include people born blind or having lost their sight, people having difficulty walking or using a wheelchair, people with a diagnosis on the autism spectrum, older people, patients lying in a hospital environment, and people with dementia. In order to gain insight in how they experience and relate to space, we analyse written accounts of disabled people; volunteer in schools for blind children, collective housing facilities, care homes and hospitals; conduct in-depth interviews, sometimes complemented with video- and photo-ethnography; visit buildings in the company of disabled people; study the work of designers living with particular conditions themselves; and involve disabled people as experts in real-world design processes.