Can the Blind Be Graphic Designers

i’d like to start

by asking a question can you design

without

sight it’s a perplexing question

as a publication designer and design

educator i can’t

do my job without sight the very field

of graphic design is called

visual communication its name implies

vision and an ability

to see but maybe that’s misleading

maybe vision and the act of design can

be separated

maybe we need to check our blindness

so let’s imagine this a university

instructor who’s just opened their inbox

to read

the following dear professor gagnon

i am writing to you about the student

jillian sloan who is enrolled in your

course pub 131

in the fall term jillian has significant

visual loss

is effectively blind and will require

extensive accommodations to access

all course materials and to complete all

exams have you ever had one of those

moments where your brain realizes

something

but you’re really just getting a 404

error the hamsters

stuck in the wheel well that’s kind of

how i was feeling

you see the course in question is called

publication design technologies

in it i guide students with zero

knowledge of graphic design

and design software adobe photoshop

illustrator and indesign

to being able to design print and hand

bind a copy of alice’s adventures in

wonderland

in 14 weeks students learn to make their

first book

it’s a pretty fun but as my students

like to tell me

demanding course yet there i was

reading an email telling me that a

legally blind individual wants to take

this class i didn’t get it

why would someone who can’t see want to

design

what’s the point and how is that even

possible

i found myself writing the following

response

i’m happy to make accommodations but i

honestly don’t see a clear way forward

pub 131 is a design course and all but

one

assignment is a purely visual design

project

ultimately if the student in question

cannot do visual design

this course will be impossible for them

looking back i was reluctant to

say the least and merely donning the

guise of accommodation i was

uneasy reading this today

shames me i was vulnerable and

unprepared to deal with the situation

but i can’t make excuses for myself

society teaches us to be inclusive we

are aware that education is a human

right and must be accessible for all

and yet i was clearly thinking that

there are caveats at play

i mean how on earth does one teach

a legally blind individual to use design

software as a graphic designer

it doesn’t make sense i selfishly assume

that jill would not be able to do the

work without sight

that it was impossible that’s

a not cool and b

so incredibly wrong as i realized over

the coming weeks

graphic design and the design process

isn’t purely visual

there are many many non-visual

components to it

and who am i to say that someone can’t

design

they merely need a different approach

and that’s what i needed too

the day i met jill i had so many

questions

do you have any vision can you see

shapes can you sense colors do you

understand

color i had switched into curious mode

i wanted answers why was jill here

making my life complicated

turns out she’s a woman that doesn’t

take an i can’t do it approach to things

i quickly learned that she had recently

completed a course in

video editing yeah a legally blind

individual doing

video editing again i was

stumped but reassured in her confidence

jill began the course with an

instructional aide by her side

to assist in describing visual course

content

first project a typography poster

i figured this was the moment the moment

we see what’s really going on here

what is jill capable of is this a waste

of my time jill and her aide megan

developed novel collaborative approaches

to learning design software together

describing visual forms and completing

layouts

here we see page layout and structure

demonstrated using the addition of

raised tactile lego

blocks here we see typographic samples

created using a tactile printer dubbed

the toaster allowing jill to choose

desired fonts

here we see jill’s layout printed with

sewing added to highlight different

visual

and textual areas for her hands to

assess

and lastly is the final poster

showcasing the font baskerville

and its common use as a much love

typeface for book design

genius who knew you could feel your way

through fonts and layouts

with just your fingertips and some

clever tactile solutions

second project a tri-fold marketing

brochure

was tackled with similar adeptness and

increased layout complexity

including the addition of braille in

raised fabric paint

looking at this one can see that it’s

well ordered and has a clear aesthetic

yet it was designed without the designer

ever

being able to see it jill had proven

that she was capable of far

more visual work than one could possibly

predict

or imagine final project

that handbound copy of alice’s

adventures in wonderland

sealed the deal jill not only designed

it

she also commissioned and art directed a

friend to create

the illustrations in our story it was

the blind leading the non-blind

this is jill she’s legally blind

and she’s sewing a book that she

designed

she doesn’t take an i can’t do it

approach to life

she figures things out

she wants to be a book editor one day

from what i can see

i have no doubt that she’ll do it

we could all learn a thing or three from

jill

being a graphic designer i communicate

primarily through visual form

and i teach my students to do the same

at first glance

yes i think we can all admit that a

legally blind graphic designer appears

to be an oxymoron

design equals visual the visual requires

sight

the visually impaired don’t have sight

therefore they aren’t

designers simple math but this equation

doesn’t add up in my world anymore

graphic design is more than visual

communication

people are more than what we see at

first glance

they are many things that we cannot see

they are more capable

more inspiring and more resourceful than

you can imagine

looking back i can tell you that there

was only one blind person in my

classroom

me through my own actions i nearly

prevented someone from excelling due to

my discomfort

that’s not my goal as an educator and

that shouldn’t be anyone’s goal as a

human being

we need to lift each other up as a

society we must overcome our

vulnerabilities and blind assumptions

to allow ability to shine no matter what

form or method

visual non-visual or otherwise it takes

if that means we need to change

ourselves the institutions we serve

or other forces then we must do so

when we check our preconceptions and

trust in the ability of others

the things we’d least expect become

possible realities