FISH: Design quality of public toilets for visually impaired persons

According to United Nations statistics, about one-thirtieth of the world's population is visually impaired. These visually impaired persons (VIPs) face a variety of difficulties in their daily lives. This is the case in fact not only in countries with a shortage of resources or with relatively low living standards, but also in developed countries. Most of the time, such difficulties in daily life come from the misunderstanding of VIPs' wants and needs and in turn poor design quality. To enhance equal opportunities in society and improve the design quality of the public environment and facilities, a project on how VIPs access public toilets has under way since 2004. To maintain better design quality in public toilets, the FISH concept has been initiated. This design concept includes the design considerations of friendly, informative, safe, and hygienic. This paper reviews the wants and needs of VIPs that need to be considered in using public toilets and the help that they need to be given. Based on the findings of the project, this paper then discusses how better quality designs for public toilets can been obtained by implementing the FISH concept.