Distraction Inhibitors

Cathy Purple Cherry, AIA

Often individuals with special needs struggle with perceptual problems. Sounds can be perceived as too loud, bright lights can be stressful, patterns can cause perceptual overload, and distant movement of others or objects can cause distraction from focused efforts. These stressors can create strain, fatigue, headaches, and a more distorted environment. When design solutions are made to reduce these issues, the special needs child or adult is calmer and less anxious. Ultimately, these individuals feel better, experience improved social interaction, increase their ability to focus, listen, think, and communicate, and their academic skills become more accurate.

The design strategies that can be taken include eliminating fluorescent lighting, understanding the acceptable patterns and colors for the group served, installing controlled lighting systems to help manage the quality of light in a space and modifying the buzzer and bell sounds to assist in making this distraction more tolerable.

In space planning, strategies to reduce distraction include positioning classroom orientation so as to reduce visual connections to more active areas, locating furniture groupings in a way to support personal space requirements and maintain focused conversation, creating buffer areas such as storage closets between densely populated corridors and classrooms, and locating entrances to spaces in such a way to eliminate direct site lines to teaching or meeting rooms.

© Purple Cherry Architects 2008