Inclusive Airport Navigation – Chapter 1.1: Background Information – Disability

The Oxford English Dictionary states that disability is:

“1. A physical or mental condition that limits a person’s movements, senses, or activities {and} 2. A disadvantage”.  [1.]

Whilst restricted mobility or complete blindness can often be identified by a persons behavioural patterns or assets – such as a guide dog, cane or wheelchair – so called invisible disabilities are very hard to recognise.

Those invisible – or also referred to as hidden disabilities [2.]  – can cause a variety of symptoms and problems some of which might only be temporary or occurring irregularly. A universal categorisation or classification is currently not in place and would be nearly impossible to establish. Some clinical pictures however include certain forms of auditory and visual impairments or chronic pain.

“Disability resides in the society not in the person.” [3.]

In contrast to the ‘Oxford English Dictionary’ definition, the previous statement found within the ‘United Nations enable’ set of definitions for disability makes one thing clear: The problems caused by a disability are not a direct result of physical, intellectual, sensory or mental impairment – it is merely the degree of societies disregard for this persons unique requirements to interact successfully with their environment.

The ‘World Health Organisation (WHO)’ supports the ‘United Nations’ definition and refers to disability as an “umbrella term for impairments, activity limitations and participation restrictions, referring to the negative aspects of the interaction between an individual (with a health condition) and that individual’s contextual factors (environmental and personal factors).” [4.] It further defines participation restriction as “a problem experienced by an individual in involvement in life situations.” [5.] These can include discrimination in the work place or limitations to transportation. Level of assistance, perception, categorisation and the degree of general acceptance for disability vary depending on the cultural setting and a person’s role in society.

These two opposing concepts are referred to as the medical model and the social model of disability. The social model of disability arose in America as a result of the human rights movement and is more suitable for this dissertations focus and analysis of exclusion caused by the design of airport navigation systems. [6.] In the UK alone there are roughly 1.7 million people either registered as blind, partially sighted or struggling with low vision.

“Many of these users are elderly. Four out of five people with serious sight problems are over 65. One in five people over 75 have a sight problem.” [9.]

One of the demographic groups at high risk of visual impairment is the older generations. “About 65% of all people who are visually impaired are aged 50 and older, while this age group comprises about 20% of the world’s population. With an increasing elderly population in many countries, more people will be at risk of age-related visual impairment.” [10.]  There are numerous types of visual impairments, some of which are inheritable, others occur more commonly with progressing age; some are either easily- or even self-corrected whilst others have more invasive consequences. Common symptoms include blurred and distorted vision and difficulties in colour differentiation. [11.]

• normal vision
• moderate visual impairment
• severe visual impairment
• blindness

Moderate visual impairment and severe visual impairment are grouped and often referred to under the term ‘Low Vision’.

For blindness the ‘WHO’ further states that it is a “severe sight loss, where a person is unable to see clearly how many fingers are being held up at a distance of 3m (9.8 feet) or less, even when they are wearing glasses or contact lenses. However, someone who is blind may still have some degree of vision.” [13.]