How architecture changes for the Deaf

[Sound of subway announcements]

Narrator: We live in a world built
for people who hear.

"Hello? Can you hear me?"

[Sounds of many different
day-to-day activities]

But what would our man-made
world look like and feel like

if it were designed for
those who don´t hear?

Gallaudet University in Washington, DC

is a school for the deaf
and hard-of-hearing.

And they are redesigning entire buildings
based on the sensory experience

of those who don´t hear.

We've only just begun
to challenge ourselves,

to examine how we could
design entire buildings,

entire campuses, or even cities,
to be aligned with DeafSpace.

Deaf people, as a culture,
have been marginalized largely.

We've been, as a marginalized community,
developing our own culture

and that defines what
kind of place we call home,

how we claim and occupy space.

And so we've begun to ask
ourselves these questions

and because of that, have gotten
a lot more creative and think bigger

about how we can find different ways to

align our ways of being
to our environments.

The classrooms are oriented
in a semi-circle, or U-shape

so that classmates can continuously
visually connect with other classmates.

So if you want to be
involved in a discussion,

everyone has a front row seat to seeing.

In a wider hallway, two people can walk
in parallel signing with each other.

But we do have specific
distance parameters

where in we can observe the
whole body and its signing.

Hearing people, though could disregard
that kind of a distance requirement,

they can be next to each other,
speaking to each other,

without that need
for the visual field."

Stairs also require more
visual attention to your footing,

and so ramps reduce that.

So if you are talking to
someone while navigating

while navigating a ramp,
you can do it easly.

Within DeafSpace, we have always relied
on a heavily visible environment,

because we are not
getting information auditorily.

So if you´re in the top of a terrace,

you can see all the way to the bottom.

It's one distinct place that can
be unified or have three distinct areas.

Color and lighting are highly
aligned to communication access.

Blues and greens will contrast with most
skin tones enough to reduce eye strain.

You may want to have
more diffused lighting.

A lot of the lighting here is
directional so that it can be aligned.

There are mirrors present

to allow somebody to know and have
a sense of what's happening behind them.

Through the use of that reflection
they can know if someone is near,

behind or if sombedody taps them.

They look up and the reflective
space lets them know who is it.

Transparency of, say, doorways.

So that when a person is in an office,

they can either have a
transparent doorway or passageway,

or one that is opaqued.

So that I can see lighting and shadow and
movement and know somebody is at the door,

but not clearly see who's there.

Very often, people refer to
"hearing loss" as an example

which negatively frames the
whole approach from the outset.

But let's imagine the
deaf baby who has never heard

and yet is still described as
experiencing "hearing loss".

And instead we propose a
different framing: that of "deaf gain".

"What is it that we gain by the
experience of being or becoming deaf?"

DeafSpace, I think is born of the idea
of having something to offer the world.

That being deaf confers some very
interesting perspectives on life.

[Upbeat music]