Making your way through a crowded mall, art gallery or gym is not just potentially aggravating, it can be treacherous if you're legally blind.
Yet how can the non-blind majority of citizens know exactly how alarming it feels, physically and emotionally - or conversely, how remarkably well people who are blind manage to cope?
To convey those sensations, Megan Strickfaden, an associate professor of Design Studies and Material Culture, and PhD student Adolfo Ruiz, made a nine-and-a-half-minute film which follows three legally blind people through Edmonton City Centre Mall, the Art Gallery of Alberta and a gym in West Edmonton.
"The film ends up illustrating more about people's abilities and what they can see, rather than their disabilities," said Strickfaden. "It is quite surprising for most audiences."
So, Strickfaden included this 2012 film, titled Light in the Borderlands, in a 90-minute screening of short films from Canada and abroad that she's curated for the upcoming Design Matters Film Series. The one-night-only event run February 24 at the Art Gallery of Alberta, and is sponsored by Media Architecture Design Edmonton, a not-for-profit organization that allows local designers to showcase their work.
Each of the 10 films in the series illuminates perceptions about inclusive design, a discipline that suggests there's a way to make spaces and objects accessible to everyone regardless of their physical abilities.
"It's meant to provoke people into thinking more deeply about the role of things in peoples' social relationships," said Strickfaden.
In addition to Borderlands, there are six other locally made films, several of which are new.
We Regret to Inform You is a 2015 National Film Board short by Edmontonians Eva Colmers and Heidi Janz. It follows Janz, an academic and playwright who is severely disabled by cerebral palsy, as she discovers that her highly productive life disqualifies her from government benefits.
Visitability #1, 2 and 3, are each 15-second shorts made in 2015 that highlight the need for homes to have accessible doors, hallways and bathrooms by spoofing well-known horror films. They were created by Edmonton's Open Sky Pictures.
iCUP is a 2014 film examining how the standalone public bathrooms at the corner of Whyte Avenue and Gateway Boulevard sacrifice privacy for safety.
G.I.M.P. Bootcamp is a satirical sendup of stereotypes and expectations, made by former Paralympic bronze medallist Danielle Peers and filmmaker Melisa Brittain. It focuses on how Speers deals with social expectations ever since muscular dystrophy changed her from an able-bodied basketball star to an elite athlete in a wheelchair, an activist, artist and speaker.
The other three films in the series were sourced by Strickfaden from outside of Canada. They include:
Post Occupancy Evaluation, a 2011 Belgian film that humorously points out the successes and failures of a newly built movie theatre that features poor universal design.
Khoc Nguoc (Crying Inside Out), a 2014 film from Vietnam that illustrates how exclusive society and its built environment is.
Among the Giants, a 2009 documentary from New York, about a nonprofit organization that's striving to ensure all children with disabilities get the equipment they need to participate fully in their community.
Yet how can the non-blind majority of citizens know exactly how alarming it feels, physically and emotionally - or conversely, how remarkably well people who are blind manage to cope?
To convey those sensations, Megan Strickfaden, an associate professor of Design Studies and Material Culture, and PhD student Adolfo Ruiz, made a nine-and-a-half-minute film which follows three legally blind people through Edmonton City Centre Mall, the Art Gallery of Alberta and a gym in West Edmonton.
"The film ends up illustrating more about people's abilities and what they can see, rather than their disabilities," said Strickfaden. "It is quite surprising for most audiences."
So, Strickfaden included this 2012 film, titled Light in the Borderlands, in a 90-minute screening of short films from Canada and abroad that she's curated for the upcoming Design Matters Film Series. The one-night-only event run February 24 at the Art Gallery of Alberta, and is sponsored by Media Architecture Design Edmonton, a not-for-profit organization that allows local designers to showcase their work.
Each of the 10 films in the series illuminates perceptions about inclusive design, a discipline that suggests there's a way to make spaces and objects accessible to everyone regardless of their physical abilities.
"It's meant to provoke people into thinking more deeply about the role of things in peoples' social relationships," said Strickfaden.
In addition to Borderlands, there are six other locally made films, several of which are new.
We Regret to Inform You is a 2015 National Film Board short by Edmontonians Eva Colmers and Heidi Janz. It follows Janz, an academic and playwright who is severely disabled by cerebral palsy, as she discovers that her highly productive life disqualifies her from government benefits.
Visitability #1, 2 and 3, are each 15-second shorts made in 2015 that highlight the need for homes to have accessible doors, hallways and bathrooms by spoofing well-known horror films. They were created by Edmonton's Open Sky Pictures.
iCUP is a 2014 film examining how the standalone public bathrooms at the corner of Whyte Avenue and Gateway Boulevard sacrifice privacy for safety.
G.I.M.P. Bootcamp is a satirical sendup of stereotypes and expectations, made by former Paralympic bronze medallist Danielle Peers and filmmaker Melisa Brittain. It focuses on how Speers deals with social expectations ever since muscular dystrophy changed her from an able-bodied basketball star to an elite athlete in a wheelchair, an activist, artist and speaker.
The other three films in the series were sourced by Strickfaden from outside of Canada. They include:
Post Occupancy Evaluation, a 2011 Belgian film that humorously points out the successes and failures of a newly built movie theatre that features poor universal design.
Khoc Nguoc (Crying Inside Out), a 2014 film from Vietnam that illustrates how exclusive society and its built environment is.
Among the Giants, a 2009 documentary from New York, about a nonprofit organization that's striving to ensure all children with disabilities get the equipment they need to participate fully in their community.