How to Design Hospital Settings for Visually Impaired Patients

Abstract

It is essential for healthcare institutions to accommodate the needs of the growing population of visually impaired patients. Hospital leaders must implement strategies to guarantee these patients’ autonomy. We reviewed the literature and identified measures hospitals have implemented to accommodate visually impaired patients. To bridge gaps in the literature, we interviewed healthcare managers from five different hospitals in the United States. These interviews reveal that, while different levels of accommodations are already offered by those institutions, accommodations are generally extremely basic, and leave enormous room for improvement to ensure that the visually impaired receive proper care and dignified treatment.

Keywords:

• Visual impairment
• hospital wayfinding
• accessibility