Designing Visually Accessible Cities and Communities

October 06, 2015

12:40pm-12:55pm

This session will focus on the power of sight to enjoy and navigate all aspects of our communities. It will highlight examples of urban design and landscape architecture that represent both poor and good practices in visual accessibility.
Vision is not often considered when we plan our communities yet inclusive communities must consider the significant portion of the population with blindness, low or diminished vision. As Canada's population ages the issues associated with vision loss will become more acute. How we design our communities can either enable or disable how people move about in the public realm. 

Learning Outcomes

• Understand the types of visual limitations that can inhibit accessibility and how these can be overcome through urban design
• Identify ways to improve community design for accessibility
• Understand the legislative requirements for planners to consider accessibility in planning and design

Speakers