WEBVTT
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(ound of subway announcements)
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(narrator) We live in a world
built for people who hear.
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(woman) "Hello? Can you hear me?"
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(sounds of many different
day-to-day activities)
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(sounds of many different
day-to-day activities)
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(narrator) But what would our man-made
world look like and feel like
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if it were designed
for those who don´t hear?
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♪ (percussive music) ♪
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Gallaudet University in Washington DC
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is a school for the deaf
and hard-of-hearing.
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And they are redesigning entire buildings
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based on the sensory experience
of those who don´t hear.
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♪ (percussive music) ♪
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We've only just begun
to challenge ourselves
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to examine how we could
design entire buildings,
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entire campuses, or even cities,
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to be aligned with DeafSpace.
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♪ (percussive music) ♪
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Deaf people, as a culture,
have been marginalized largely.
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We've been, as a marginalized community,
developing our own culture
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and that defines
what kind of place we call home,
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how we claim and occupy space.
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And so we've begun
to ask ourselves these questions
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and because of that,
have gotten a lot more creative
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begun to think bigger
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about how we can find different ways
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to align our ways of being
to our environments.
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The classrooms are oriented
in a semi-circle or U-shape
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so that classmates can continually
visually connect with other classmates.
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So if you want to be involved
in a discussion,
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everyone has a front row seat to seeing.
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In a wider hallway, two people can walk
in parallel, signing with each other.
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But we do have specific
distance parameters
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wherein we can observe
the whole body and its signing.
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Hearing people, though, could disregard
that kind of a distance requirement,
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they can be next to each other,
speaking to each other,
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without that need for the visual field.
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Stairs also require a great deal more
visual attention to your footing,
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and so ramps reduce that.
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So if you are communicating with somebody
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while you're navigating a ramp,
you can do so much more easily.
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Within DeafSpace, we have always relied
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on a heavily visible environment,
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because w'ere not
getting information auditorily.
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So if you´re sitting
at the top of the terrace,
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you can see all the way to the bottom.
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It's one distinct place
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that can be unified
or have three distinct areas.
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Color and lighting are highly
aligned to communication access.
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Blues and greens will usually contrast
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with most skin tones
enough to reduce eye strain.
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You may want to have
more diffused lighting.
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A lot of the lighting here
is directional so that it can be aligned.
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There are mirrors present
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to allow somebody to know
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and have a sense
of what's happening behind them.
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Through the use of that reflection
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they can know if somebody
is nearing them, behind them
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or if somebody taps them, they look up
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and that reflective space
lets them know who's there.
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Transparency of, say, doorways.
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so that when a person is in an office,
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they can either have
a transparent doorway or passageway,
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or one that is opaqued
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so that I can see lighting
and shadow and movement
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and know somebody is at the door,
but not clearly see who's there.
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Very often, people refer
to "hearing loss" as an example,
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which negatively frames
the whole approach from the outset.
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But let's imagine
the deaf baby who has never Heard,
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and yet is still described
as experiencing "hearing loss".
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And instead, we propose
a different framing:
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that of "deaf gain".
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What is it that we gain
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by the experience
of being or becoming deaf?
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DeafSpace, I believe,
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is born of the idea
that we have something to offer the world.
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That being deaf confers
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some very interesting
perspectives on life.
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upbeat music
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