Proceedings of: Workshop on Improving Building Design for Persons with Low Vision

Introduction to the Proceedings

On 29-30 September 2010, the National Institute of Building Sciences and the U.S. General Services Administration conducted this interdisciplinary Workshop in Washington, D.C. with participants from the fields of medicine (specialists in ophthalmology and low vision), architecture, engineering, interior design, lighting design, professional associations, government, academia, advocacy, and research and development.

The rationale and objectives of the Workshop are provided in Appendix A and the agenda for the two days is shown in Appendix B. A list of participants is given in Appendix C and biographical sketches are provided on the website (FTP site) that supports these Proceedings: (http://files.nibs.org/; user name: lowvision; passcode: lowvision). A list of reference materials that were distributed to the participants during the Workshop is given in Appendix D; copies of these references are available on the FTP site.

These Proceedings are an edited version of the recorded transcripts of the Workshop. The transcripts have been edited for easier reading of the spoken presentations and discussions. However, care has been taken to preserve the intent of the content, as valuable information was shared during the discussions as well as during the presentations. Edits have also been made to link the presentations with the “slides”, which are available on the FTP site. Unfortunately, the recorders malfunctioned for Panels 2 and 3 and for one presentation in Panel 6. Through our handwritten notes, we have attempted to reconstruct these sessions and to link them to their slides.

The Table of Contents is an extensive outline of the Proceedings, with Headings 1 – 3 shown. Lower Headings will also be found in the body of the Proceedings. Also, these edited Proceedings have embedded 24 “Issues” that seemed to highlight the sessions; these Issues are listed in Appendix E. The notes that were made by Stephanie Stubbs from the Preface for Day 2, are included as Appendix F. A subsequent set of notes by Erin Schambureck are in Appendix G.