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Papers by Sarah Magdy
MSA Engineering Journal
Inclusivity is a design approach that aims to include everyone, specifically people who are exclu... more Inclusivity is a design approach that aims to include everyone, specifically people who are excluded or marginalized, and giving them equal opportunities. Visually impaired children tend to suffer from physical barriers in schools, due to the existing architectural visual dominance. The main research problem is that the inclusive school design criteria usually address the aspects of safety and accidents avoidance, not giving enough attention to the spatial experience. In this study, the relation between existing inclusive school guidelines for the visually impaired and the visually impaired perceptual tools is analysed. The results show how the design criteria that depends on non-visual spatial design details affect the spatial perception of the visually impaired children, and the strength of relationship between the available guidelines and spatial perception. It also prioritizes the guidelines based on their importance in relation to the visually impaired perception. The results can help school designers to enhance the visually impaired spatial experience by knowing which perceptual attribute to address.
Civil Engineering and Architecture, 2023
Inclusive design is an approach that aims to include special children with the general student po... more Inclusive design is an approach that aims to include special children with the general student population by developing the whole system, including the built environment, to accommodate their needs. Although efforts have been made to include children with visual impairments in the educational mainstream, available design guidelines often miss their "real lived experience". Available inclusive school design criteria are considered limited and the necessary design qualities of space to cope with their impairments are often missing the phenomenological, holistic approach. This study is conducted using a mixed method. The necessary spatial qualities are extracted from visually impaired children's real experiences through a phenomenological approach. An in-depth interview is done with visually impaired participants; transcriptions are extracted and analysed through thematic analysis. Thematic analysis is done by the NVIVO qualitative research analysis program. The themes are later validated through a personal experience at the blind museum "Dialogue in the Dark" in Cairo, Egypt. Research findings show and explain the main four themes that affect the visually impaired experience, which are: senses stimulation, accessibility, sense of place and perception of safety and they can be translated into design considerations.
Civil Engineering and Architecture
Visually impaired people, in their daily lives, face struggles and spatial barriers because the b... more Visually impaired people, in their daily lives, face struggles and spatial barriers because the built environment is often designed with an extreme focus on the visual element, causing what is called architectural visual bias or ocularcentrism. The aim of the study is to holistically understand the world of the visually impaired as an attempt to extract the qualities of space that accommodate their needs, and to show the importance of multi-sensory, holistic designs for the blind. Within the framework of existential phenomenology, common themes are reached through "intersubjectivity": experience descriptions by blind people and blind architects, observation of how blind children learn to perceive their surrounding environment, and a personal lived blind-folded experience are analyzed. The extracted themes show how visually impaired people filter out and prioritize tactile (active, passive and dynamic touch), acoustic and olfactory spatial qualities respectively, and how th...
MSA Engineering Journal
Inclusivity is a design approach that aims to include everyone, specifically people who are exclu... more Inclusivity is a design approach that aims to include everyone, specifically people who are excluded or marginalized, and giving them equal opportunities. Visually impaired children tend to suffer from physical barriers in schools, due to the existing architectural visual dominance. The main research problem is that the inclusive school design criteria usually address the aspects of safety and accidents avoidance, not giving enough attention to the spatial experience. In this study, the relation between existing inclusive school guidelines for the visually impaired and the visually impaired perceptual tools is analysed. The results show how the design criteria that depends on non-visual spatial design details affect the spatial perception of the visually impaired children, and the strength of relationship between the available guidelines and spatial perception. It also prioritizes the guidelines based on their importance in relation to the visually impaired perception. The results can help school designers to enhance the visually impaired spatial experience by knowing which perceptual attribute to address.
Civil Engineering and Architecture, 2023
Inclusive design is an approach that aims to include special children with the general student po... more Inclusive design is an approach that aims to include special children with the general student population by developing the whole system, including the built environment, to accommodate their needs. Although efforts have been made to include children with visual impairments in the educational mainstream, available design guidelines often miss their "real lived experience". Available inclusive school design criteria are considered limited and the necessary design qualities of space to cope with their impairments are often missing the phenomenological, holistic approach. This study is conducted using a mixed method. The necessary spatial qualities are extracted from visually impaired children's real experiences through a phenomenological approach. An in-depth interview is done with visually impaired participants; transcriptions are extracted and analysed through thematic analysis. Thematic analysis is done by the NVIVO qualitative research analysis program. The themes are later validated through a personal experience at the blind museum "Dialogue in the Dark" in Cairo, Egypt. Research findings show and explain the main four themes that affect the visually impaired experience, which are: senses stimulation, accessibility, sense of place and perception of safety and they can be translated into design considerations.
Civil Engineering and Architecture
Visually impaired people, in their daily lives, face struggles and spatial barriers because the b... more Visually impaired people, in their daily lives, face struggles and spatial barriers because the built environment is often designed with an extreme focus on the visual element, causing what is called architectural visual bias or ocularcentrism. The aim of the study is to holistically understand the world of the visually impaired as an attempt to extract the qualities of space that accommodate their needs, and to show the importance of multi-sensory, holistic designs for the blind. Within the framework of existential phenomenology, common themes are reached through "intersubjectivity": experience descriptions by blind people and blind architects, observation of how blind children learn to perceive their surrounding environment, and a personal lived blind-folded experience are analyzed. The extracted themes show how visually impaired people filter out and prioritize tactile (active, passive and dynamic touch), acoustic and olfactory spatial qualities respectively, and how th...