Accessible Wayfinding: Empathy, Human-Centered Design, and a Blank Slate

Wayfinding and signage are important components of a building’s structure and interior space for visitors with and without a mobile/physical disability, especially on university and college campuses. This paper documents a semester-long project where students in an upper-level design elective course identified a building on campus that had an inconsistent and missing wayfinding system. Documenting their ethnographic research and empathetic experiences, students were able to develop a wayfinding system based on research that focused on individuals with a mobile or physical disability. They produced and installed the system in the fall semester of 2016.