Interior Design Project

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KellyKel

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I am an interior design student at Buffalo State College. I am not a deaf individual but I am taking a class on ASL and I came to an interesting realization after watching a movie in class yesterday. The woman in the video stated that her home required very open spaces in order to see her husband signing in another room. I am interested in designing a space specially to fit the needs of a deaf individual for my current interior design project. I am wondering if some of you might be able to give me an idea of what you think might be necessary in this space. Thank you all. :)
 
There is an episode of Extreme Home Makeover that was a Deaf family with a blind/autistic kid and a hearing kid. Very interesting. They spent a LOT of money making it high tech and they had an open floor plan. You should check it out. It was so cool! I think it was probably 2 years ago. I have a tape of it, but that doesn't really help you. The family's last name was Vardon.
 
design elements for the deaf

KellyKel said:
I am an interior design student at Buffalo State College. I am not a deaf individual but I am taking a class on ASL and I came to an interesting realization after watching a movie in class yesterday. The woman in the video stated that her home required very open spaces in order to see her husband signing in another room. I am interested in designing a space specially to fit the needs of a deaf individual for my current interior design project. I am wondering if some of you might be able to give me an idea of what you think might be necessary in this space. Thank you all. :)
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hi Kelly:
I am a commercial interior designer with some 28 years experience. In fact, I was recently mentioned in an article in SigNews regarding this very issue.
There are a few things one should pay attention when putting together design elements with sensitivity to a deaf inhabitant.
1.An open space plan is indeed called for. In the commercial world I will always recommend lowered system walls to the client.
2. Easy on busy patterns above the chest level. Ex:wall paper patterns.
3. Pay attention to lighting. It's important that the lighting source is not behind the person who is either signing to the deaf person or that person is lipreading. Lighting should be dispersed evenly throughout the space -not only in the ceiling.
4.Incorporate flashers into a design element as needed.

Those are a few major things for consideration. Let me know if that is helpful at all and how you do in your project.
Good Luck!
Staci
 
Sorry for my late reply, I've been really busy with school work lately. Thank you so much for your help, my project is going very well and I am finding it very interesting.
 
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