Redesigning Ford Vehicles for the Visually Impaired

Ford Automobile Company has joined with Cambridge University to design cars that are easier to use for people with vision problems. At Cambridge’s Engineering Design Center, the team came up with a Visual Impairment Simulator, which could show the designers what it was like to drive a vehicle with a given visual disorder. “It allows you to simulate visual impairments on any image. You load in an image, select a visual impairment and it lets you see the image as someone with that impairment would see it,” said Sam Waller, a designer of the software. Ford is now using the software to redesign its dashboards and displays so that even people with visual impairments can use the cars comfortably. Ford has a positive outlook for these developments. According to Angelika Engel, an ergonomics attribute specialist at Ford Europe, “Our work with Cambridge gives us a real understanding of the difficulties many people face and helps us design our products to better suit the needs of a larger percentage of our customers. At this early stage, the software is helping us identify any areas for improvement and come up with solutions. Our engineers will then be able to implement these solutions in future vehicles.”