Beyond visual tools: an inclusive educational experience in co-designing yacht interiors with and for users with visual impairments

Interior design education relies predominantly on visual representation. Tools such as concept sketching, technical drawings, photorealistic renderings and digital animations continue to shape how students conceive, develop and communicate space. However, these tools presuppose a visually oriented user, an assumption that becomes critically limiting when the intended client or co-designer lives with a visual impairment. This paper presents an industrial master’s thesis project of an interior design student who, while initially investigating how to design yacht interiors for people with visual impairments, quickly encountered a more fundamental challenge. Beyond the spatial and sensory solutions required to make a yacht fully accessible to a blind or low-vision owner, the project revealed a significant methodological challenge: the necessity to imagine new ways and tools to communicate design intentions and to enable true co- design with non-visual users. As the perceptual system guiding the project shifted, the experience made visible what happens in both the design studio and the design process when visual dominance is suspended. In response, the project progressively adopted multisensory, tactile, and narrative-based representation strategies, including material exploration and verbal mediation. The paper reflects on this educational experience and discusses its implications from two complementary perspectives: that of the student, navigating a profound reconfiguration of design habits, and that of the educator, observing how these changes affect teaching and assessment in design education. The outcome shows that moving beyond visual dominance fosters multisensory design literacy, with implications for inclusive design education beyond the nautical context.