Background

About the project

The Inclusive Design project was established by the German Federation of the Blind and Partially Sighted (DBSV). It brought together a team of communication designers, DBSV committee representatives and individuals with a range of visual impairments under the direction of Prof Florian Adler. The project started with a comprehensive literature review that formed the basis for the recommendations on this website. The recommendations were then tested in a three-stage process: first by a group of ophthalmology patients, then by a larger set of test subjects recruited via a call for participants published in Sichtweisen (previously Gegenwart), the DBSV magazine, and finally in two practical applications: the DBSV magazine and website.

The Inclusive Design working group

Elke Dittmer, Chair of Medibus (Mediengemeinschaft für blinde und sehbehinderte Menschen)

Prof Thomas Kahlisch, DBSV Board Member, Director of the German Central Library for the Blind (Deutsches Zentralbücherei für Blinde, DZB), Vice-Chair of Medibus

Hans-Joachim Krahl, DBSV Board Member

Heinz Mehrlich, Member of the DBSV Technical Committee on Information and Telecommunications Systems (FIT)

Franz Rebele†, DIN specialist

Individuals representing the most common eye conditions

Carolina Barrera, retinitis pigmentosa

Barbara Dvořák, diabetic retinopathy

Silke Grundmann, glaucoma

Christiane Klefisch, macular degeneration

Angelika Ostrowski, pathological myopia

Project partners

Florian Adler of adlerschmidt kommunikationsdesign, Honorary Professor of Information Design at HTW Berlin, University of Applied Sciences

Tim de Gruisbourne, Claudine Stolzenburg and Björn Barnekow, adlerschmidt kommunikationsdesign

Ralf Puschmann, graphic designer, Sichtweisen

Nina Gerling, eAccessibility specialist

The Inclusive Design project is funded by Aktion Mensch. Other supporters include adlerschmidt, MSD, Santhera (Germany) and blista. Initial project development work was carried out with support from Novartis.