What’s with the Braille?

Braille is not a text that is used very often. Well, that’s what I thought until I became a mom to a child that has some visual impairments. There’s a world out there that you don’t know…. Until you know. The first time we were introduced to braille was when our son who has visual and hearing loss was introduced to braille books in school. I (Kayla) became fascinated with the disability world and submerged myself in trainings and classes and research learning about a world that I knew nothing about but was now a part of.

When Jaxson was in the first grade, we decided it was time to pull out of public education and start homeschooling so that we could teach Jaxson how to get around and learn in natural environments. As we transitioned into this new learning style, braille books and resources became a part of our home.

My journey in the disability world has been incredibly eye opening. I started to learn what abilities really were and began to understand that accommodations aren’t just for people with disabilities but also for typical developing people. For instance, if you have vision, you need the ability to see to get around your spaces, so we use devices called lights to do that for us. If we didn’t have great lighting, we would struggle with tasks every single day. We accommodate things naturally all the time when the ability is like ours and very similar to the majority of the population around us but when there is someone who’s accommodations look different than ours it can be difficult to understand and accommodate what it is they need.

And so here we are.

When we decided to live in Nathan’s childhood home, we realized that to keep Jaxson safe, we had to make some changes. Changes like, the placement of the stove because it was in a spot that Jaxson naturally went to. It was a space that had high traffic movement and so it made sense that that was where Jaxson would be a lot of the time also.

Long story short, Nathan and I gutted the inside of our home and remodeled the whole thing together. Our home is now safer for everyone and is beautiful place that we get to live and learn in. We had so much fun that we wanted to open an architecture firm together so that we could continue down the path of rethinking spaces, and designing beautiful places for people to live work and play in. We believe that architecture is indeed for everyone and that all people should be able to enjoy it in their lives no matter what their accommodations may look like. The two texts represent people of different abilities needing different designs and is a reminder to all that all people should have access to beautiful and functional things.

“The two texts represent people of different abilities needing different designs and is a reminder to all that all people should have access to beautiful and functional things.”