Category: Special Needs

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Environment Design Tips for the Elderly

Environment Design Tips for the ElderlyThe 5 principles apply to all environment design including for the elderly:
1. Safety
The environment should not cause hurt, physical injury or loss to elderly.

2. Accessibility
The environment should be easily accessible to elderly with varied disabilities.

3. Comfort
The environment should be comfortable and provide a sense of An Le 安乐 (“peace and happiness” in Mandarin). The environment should not make elderly feel anxious, frightened or upset.

4. Legibility
The environment should be easily understood and discovered by elderly with various disabilities.

5. Efficiency
The environment should be designed and organised such that elderly can get from one point of service to another effortlessly and in a timely manner.

Source: SingHealth

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Enabling People with Special Needs Through Design

4 major types of disabilityGenerally, there are 4 groups of people with different special needs. Their impairments are as follow:
1. Mobility impairment. They are wheelchair users or the ambulant disabled with restricted movements.
2. Visual impairment. This refers to blindness, partial sight and color blindness.
3. Hearing impairment. They are people with deafness and hearing loss.
4. Cognitive impairment. They are people who face cognitive, language or learning disabilities such as people with dementia or autism.

Designing and building an interior integrated with accessibility means such as assistive devices can facilitate user-friendliness of a space. This means a space has to be inclusive enough in enabling users in general as well as people with special needs use a space more confidently and independently. By including more accessible measures to our environment, it can improve the quality of life for persons with special needs and their care-givers tremendously.

Thus, we value the benefits universal design brings to our clients. It has also became an important factor in our design thinking process. We believe being inclusive should be a collective effort among all stakeholders and society as a whole.

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Is Sign Language Universal?

Is sign language universal?
The answer is No. Different countries use different sign languages. Some countries even have multiple sign languages. Sign language is not just the hand and body movements but also includes facial expressions.

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The Disability Is Not the Problem

Prof. Mohamed Jemni delivering speech at TED.“The disability is not the problem, the accessibility is the problem”.
This quotation by Prof. Mohamed Jemni is so heartfelt.

It all begins with design, in all aspects, that we need to incorporate great sense of empathy so people with a diverse backgrounds, abilities and disabilities can uplift their life through the use of technology and accessibility means. Precise personalization for those with special needs can transform impossibility to possibility.

We believe everyone should be given a fair chance to succeed.

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Accessibility by WAH