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