Sensory Reach depicts the way the individuals use sensory stimuli to engage with and interpret their environment. They are attuned to visual and tactile cues within 360 degrees extending Deaf awareness and making the spatial orientation and wayfinding easier in their surroundings such as shadow movement, as well as vibrations for preserving a sense of personal safety and well-being. Deaf individuals can use their own approach to read their surroundings and different activities that hearing people do not, nonetheless hearing people simply use their ears to be aware of their surroundings. For example, hearing people speak to another through a closed door, Deaf individuals can carry a conversation using their sign language through a closed window hundreds of feet apart.

Space and proximity are the most important key aspects for a visual-spatial language so Deaf signers maintain enough distance to see their facial expressions and to accommodate each other’s signing space during their conversation, consequently, they maintain a certain physical distance from each other. This space has a good impact on the layout of the furnishing in the room or hallway. In particular, Deaf individuals desire a wider hallway to walk and sign simultaneously. They make conversational circles, so they gather and see the full use of the signing space with accessibility.

Mobility affects how people move around rooms, hallways, gathering spaces, and others. When the Deaf signers walk and converse at the same time, they preserve a wide space between themselves to promote clear visual communication. Concurrently, they sign and scan their surroundings to maintain navigation and check for threats without interruption when they walk on their path. Building glass corners or radius walls at corridor intersections to allow extended visual access and give a visual warning to be aware of oncoming individuals. Hearing people are aware of their surroundings using their voice recognition and listening footsteps. They are able to distinguish where the sounds are coming from. For instance, DeafSpace will facilitate the ability for signers to hold conversations while walking without feeling cramped or running into another person in the wider hallways.

Light and Color are mostly other important aspects of DeafSpace because Deaf individuals depend heavily on their visuals. A glare or poor light conditions or shadow patterns and backlighting are high contrast for impacting the visual communication by causing eye fatigue because they contribute to the loss of concentration and physical exhaustion. Using artificial lights and architectural elements using controlled natural light or daylight that turn it into a soft and diffused light are important aspects in the design. Seeing as sign language is reliant upon the visual and color contrast between the signer, the surroundings, and visual wayfinding, DeafSpace recommends the utilization of cool colors with a range of blues and greens for the formal meeting rooms. In addition, a light flasher of the fire alarm and doorbell strobe light provide a visual cue that aids by providing a visual alert.

Acoustics: DeafSpace acoustically prevents distractions with minimum of background noise for Deaf individuals with some level of hearing, who may use their hearing assistive devices such as hearing aids or cochlear implants to boost the different kinds of sounds in the environment. They are not unable to recognize the sounds from their surroundings, but they feel various sounds by way of vibrations. They feel distracted when they have to distinguish the source of sound or vibration. Other Hard of hearing individuals can recognize the words, yet the assistive devices can reflect the sound waves which makes them distracting or even painful. DeafSpace should be designed to reduce the sources of background noise and reverberation. Also, it should be a friendly space for hearing people so that they do not hesitate to use it. Hard of hearing individuals do not use sign language and struggle to hear and understand their conversations. They miss the sound around them, such as the sound of rain drops, birds chirping. They have the option of cochlear implants or hearing aids. Both the cases, the sound heard is not a natural sound, which becomes a challenge again. When using a cochlear implant, they hear the electronic sound, which is a challenge for them to hear, understand, and remember the sound for the future. Further, they have their different mappings to recognize warning signals, understand other sounds in the environment, and understand speech in-person. It is required to take speech therapy and practice with their peers everyday to develop their listening and speaking skills. Though it would give a good solution to use their listening skill and speech skills themselves on the application independently, but believe that it is challenging. The DeafSpace will be a blessing to overcome these challenges.