Dis-ability, design-ability: a reflection on their mediation capacity

This article depicts part of the accomplishments during more than ten years of research and development. This route was generated from a design enquiry posed by a multidisciplinary team, under the auspices of the Centro de Cartografia Tactil at the Universidad Tecnologica Metropolitana - UTEM - at the University of Barcelona, Spain. The theoretical-practical study focuses on the "non-visual" spaces, in which the act of seeing is not a prerogative for visual perception. This peculiarity broadens the theoretical and productive boundaries of design; this consolidated research line is acknowledged by the Science and Technology Committee, due to the endorsement of a project from the Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Cientifico y Tecnologico - Fondecyt - as an introduction to research in the year 2011. We consider that this allows new perspectives for visual communication design, taking multisensory design as key for accessibility and usability. This epistemological approach would allow modern society to actually visualize itself as an inclusive society. In the meantime, if tactile sense is taken into consideration, it will not only become a "mediator" between blind people and the cultural, geographic and social spaces where they interact, but it will also contribute to a better "sociability" among all the living beings that cohabitate in their corresponding "Umwelt". In this paper, we describe not only how the consideration of impairment has helped to the consolidation of a body of knowledge related to this discipline, but also the current state of the research and its projections on ability-design.