Home Design Ideas for the Visually Impaired: Five Essential Tips and Ideas

If you have a vision impairment and you are working with a luxury designer to create a home for yourself, you need to focus on features and modifications that make life as easy as possible for you. Take a look at these ideas -- if you have only recently started to suffer from vision issues, some of these ideas may be surprising and helpful to you:

1. Create an easy-to-memorise floorplan

As your vision gets worse or if you go completely blind, you will need to memorise your way around your home. Blind people frequently memorise how many stairs there are between levels, how many steps they need to take between rooms or other navigational clues.

To be able to easily navigate your home through memory, you want a relatively simple and easy-to-memorise design. For example, work with your designer on things such as always having the same number of stairs on staircases.

2. Avoid transition steps

Many home designers --whether they work on luxury homes or any other types of homes -- use steps to transition from one area to another. These steps can create tripping hazards for people with vision impairments.

Avoid them as much as possible, and use other architectural or design techniques to transition between spaces. For example, use different types of flooring rather than elevation shifts.

3. Add ample numbers of outlets

When you are blind or visually impaired, cords can also be a tripping hazard. Avoid the presence of unnecessary cords by ensuring your luxury home designer adds a lot of outlets to your house. Think carefully about how you are going to use each space and ensure it offers the power and ports you need.

4. Remember to add lots of storage

Just as cords can be a tripping hazard, so too can errant objects. So that you can easily put objects away, add lots of storage to your home design. Do not just add the storage to one area. Instead, add dedicated, built-in storage units around your entire home.

For example, make sure that you have storage space for shoes and coats near the door. That is easier, more convenient and more user friendly than having to carry those objects across the house to a different closet.

5. Embrace skylights and avoid shadows

With a vision impairment, you need as much light as possible. Work with your home's designer to increase the lighting in your space. Add skylights and large windows to as many spaces as possible.

Also, take steps to avoid glare and shadows. You don't want light bouncing off of certain areas but nonexistent in other areas. Instead, you want consistent lighting throughout your home. Contact a company such as Grollo Homes to learn more.