Accessibility is an important issue in our society and only grows in importance as the population ages. It gives everyone, regardless of their health and physical disabilities, an equal chance to function independently. When designing new buildings or renovating older ones, accessibility should be taken into consideration so that relevant information is readily available and working in the premises is effortless to all users. This study focuses on accessibility as experienced by a visually impaired person.

The purpose of this study was to describe how a visually impaired person finds the accessibility in the Paasi building in the campus of Kontinkangas. The goal was to highlight the possibility of having a visually impaired person take part in the design and evaluation of man-made environment. Another goal was to increase optometrists’ interest in accessibility.

The study was a qualitative case study. Data was gathered from a visually impaired informant who was taken on an evaluation round and then interviewed using a semistructured questionnaire. The data was simplified and categorized in accordance with the different areas of the building.

The results showed that there was variation in how a visually impaired person found the different aspects of accessibility in various parts of the building Paasi. Lighting was generally adequate and non-glaring. There were, however, differences in how passable the building was as some spaces were less logical in design than others. The informant rated accessibility in the building overall as decent, underlining a need for some improvements such as better signposts.

Accessibility in the building of Paasi should be easily improved with better guide signs, contrast strips and guiding floor materials. Although corridors were mostly safe and free from obstacles for the visually impaired, moving and finding the way could be made easier by taking more of the visual aspects of accessibility into consideration.