‘See/Do: Everyday, Differently’: Interactive Public Display About Cerebral Visual Impairment

Abstract

Visual perception is one of the key aspects of our interaction with the everyday environment, but not all people perceive it in the same way. There are people whose brain processes visual information differently, affecting their visual and spatial judgment. This is called Cerebral Visual Impairment, the single most common cause for visual impairment in children, yet often goes undiagnosed or is little understood. See/Do: Everyday Differently is a set of interactives showing what everyday life is like for people with Cerebral Visual Impairment (CVI). Through each interactive, the audience can gain first-hand experience of CVI and listen to an audio narrated by a person with CVI.  ­This project aims to raise public awareness about this condition, whilst challenging the current dominant narratives surrounding disability. Stories about disabled people tend to go to the extreme, between pitiful portrayals and inspirational, however, both create a distance between the audience and the characters. Two-thirds of the UK population still feel awkward when interacting with disabled people—if they were able to experience the everyday life of a person with CVI, how would it help to change how they perceive this disability, and subsequently disability on the whole? The interactives were first displayed in the Reading Room of the Wellcome Collection*, It was followed by a design workshop to explore how design can respond to CVI. The interactive will be used for future CVI awareness-raising events and a long-term design methodology for doing exhibitions on this kind of theme.

* a hybrid of gallery, library, and event space designed to encourage its audience to explore their curiosity with a theme of the relation between science, life, and art