Towards an Inclusive University Campus: Participatory Diagnosis under Human-Centered Design and Guidelines for the Autonomous Orientation of People with Visual Impairments

Abstract

Autonomous orientation in university campuses represents a critical challenge for people with visual impairments (PVI), whose mobility depends on individual cognitive strategies in environments designed around visual perception. This article presents the results of a diagnosis and empathy phase conducted under a Human-Centered Design (HCD) approach on the campus of Universidad EAFIT (Medellín, Colombia), within the framework of the Alianza 4U project. Through ethnographic fieldwork, observational routes, and semi-structured interviews with four PVI, physical, informational, technological, and attitudinal barriers were identified, along with the cognitive orientation patterns that participants have developed as adaptive responses to their environment. From this diagnosis, six design guidelines were derived to inform the development of accessible orientation solutions in university campuses — situated principles, grounded in the participants' real experience and transferable to other institutional contexts. The findings show that the problem is not the absence of technology but the disconnect between existing solutions and the specific context of use, and that involving PVI from the diagnostic phase is a methodological condition — not merely an ethical one — for producing relevant solutions.