When organisations design for blind and partially sighted people, something unexpected happens: they create solutions that work better for almost everyone. This isn’t a welcome side effect. It’s the principle. And once you understand it, it changes how you think about every service, environment, and interaction your organisation delivers.
A Phone Designed for One. Bought by Millions.
BT once launched a telephone with oversized buttons — roughly an inch across, easy to locate by touch, unmissable on a bedside table. It was designed specifically for people with significant sight impairment.
To BT’s complete bemusement, it became one of their best-selling phones.
The reason wasn’t hard to find. Anyone who wears glasses or contact lenses is, in a very real sense, blind in the dark. Reaching for a phone at 3am without your specs on is a universal human experience — and those enormous buttons weren’t a concession any more. They were exactly what the product needed.
The design solved a problem for blind and partially sighted people. In doing so, it revealed a problem almost no one had named.
Credit: Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman of Ogilvy (@rorysutherland-uk, YouTube)
Ramps, Kerb Cuts, and the Logic of Inclusion
Dropped kerbs and disabled access ramps were designed to give wheelchair users safe, independent movement through public spaces. They are now considered essential infrastructure — used every day by people with buggies, wheeled luggage, delivery trolleys, and bicycles.
The barrier was real for one group. The solution was universal.
This effect — sometimes called the kerb cut effect — appears again and again when barriers faced by disabled people are properly addressed. The solution doesn’t create a parallel accessible version of the world. It creates a better version of the world.
Door Handles, Doorknobs, and the Elbow Test
Most public buildings now mandate lever-style door handles rather than round doorknobs. It isn’t just an aesthetic choice.
A doorknob requires grip, rotation, and fine motor control. For someone with arthritis, a neurological condition, or limb difference, a doorknob is a barrier — full stop. A lever handle can be operated with an elbow, a forearm, or a wrist. It works when your hands are full of shopping. It works for a paramedic moving quickly through a corridor. It works for a child not yet tall enough to grip properly.
Designing to remove the barrier for one person made the door more usable for everyone.
This Isn’t Just About Products
Inclusive design applies equally to the services your organisation delivers — every customer interaction, every built environment, every communication.
How do your staff respond when a blind or partially sighted customer needs support? How does your signage or digital journey perform for someone who navigates differently? How does your team behave when an expected script doesn’t apply?
When you answer those questions well, you don’t build a bolt-on accessible option. You build a better service — for every customer who encounters it.
From Insight to Behaviour
At Blind Ambition, we work with organisations to translate this principle into practice — not as a compliance exercise, but as a genuine capability shift.
Our training moves teams through awareness into understanding, and from understanding into consistent, confident behaviour. Staff learn to introduce themselves clearly, ask how someone wants to be supported, describe environments accurately, and provide practical help that enables independence — not dependence.
Those skills don’t switch off between customers. They make your people better at their jobs across the board.
“Solve a barrier for one person — and you open a door for many. That’s not a coincidence. That’s what good design does.”
— Seema Flower, Founder and MD, Blind Ambition
The Organisations That Understand This Are Ahead
Designing for disability isn’t a concession. It’s a competitive edge. The organisations that understand this aren’t just more inclusive — they’re more innovative, more customer-focused, and better positioned for a world that is ageing, diversifying, and demanding more from every interaction.
If your organisation is ready to move from awareness to genuine capability, contact Blind Ambition at support@blindambition.co.uk or visit blindambition.co.uk.
About Blind Ambition
Blind Ambition is a behaviour-change consultancy led by Seema Flower, who is registered blind. We work with organisations across retail, construction, healthcare, financial services, and the public sector to build the confidence, capability, and consistent behaviours that make inclusion real. Find out more at blindambition.co.uk.
