A Multisensorial Storytelling Design Strategy to Build Empathy and a Culture of Inclusion

The Wondrous Goggles project is a multisensorial storytelling design strategy to explore the experiential world of people who are blind or have low vision, with the aim of raising awareness about inclusive places for work and play. The need for this exploratory storytelling design strategy is predominantly educational, as a tool to inform designers, policy makers, and technology developers of how people with blindness or low vision experience public spaces. The Wondrous Googles are specifically designed to facilitate an understanding of the navigational and spatial perception of people with low vision. During use, the Wondrous Goggles enable the user to gain a sense of limited vision and provide a vehicle for the wearer to embark upon a process of feeling, sensing, and reflecting while listening to the narration of someone who has navigated the space with low vision. Unlike other technologies that create virtual reality, or an augmented reality based on vision alone, the Wondrous Goggles create a multisensorial storytelling experience through the lived experience of a person with low vision, to gain an understanding of people's lived experiences in navigating public spaces, in order to create cultures of inclusion.