Lighting for Low Vision and Older Eyes Checklist

Write down each place in the home where somebody has said they cannot see properly, in their own words, with the room and the time of day.

Recording the exact words keeps the record an observation rather than somebody else's interpretation of it.

Note the time of day each observation belongs to, since the same place can be entirely different at noon and at six in the evening.

A room described as dark without a time attached is very hard for a designer to do anything useful with.

Record the season alongside each observation, and repeat the same walk through the home at a different time of year.

A home that is comfortable in summer and difficult in winter is describing something specific about its daylight.

Note what somebody was trying to do when they said it — reading a label, finding a key, going down a step, pouring something.

The activity is what makes the observation actionable, because light for one task is not light for another.

Walk through the whole home with the person concerned at the time of day that is hardest, and record what they point out.

Walking together produces observations neither of you would have made separately, and it takes one evening.

Write down anything the household has already changed, added or stopped using because of this, and whether it helped.

Things already tried are the most useful evidence there is and stop a professional suggesting them again.

Any lighting or fitting the household has added is for a qualified electrician to look at; never extend a circuit, add wiring or alter an installation yourself.

List the routes actually walked at night — bedroom to bathroom, downstairs for a glass of water, answering the front door — and who takes each.

These routes are rarely considered in a lighting conversation and are usually the reason one is being had.

Note what is actually switched on along each night route, and what somebody chooses not to switch on and why.

Light that is available but not used because it is too bright or wakes somebody else is not available light.

Note what is lit at the top and the bottom of any staircase at night, and walk it yourself with the usual lighting on.

These two points are named constantly in this kind of record and are worth observing rather than assuming.

Walk each route slowly at night and note every place along it where the light becomes noticeably weaker, and what is in that place.

Pointing at a specific place is far more useful to a designer than saying the landing is dark.

Note whether anything is being carried along these routes at night, and whether that occupies a hand that would otherwise be free.

This is an observation about the route rather than the person, and it matters to where light and switches go.

Note what happens on each route where a bright room meets a dark one, and in which direction people are usually going.

The change between two conditions is frequently what is being described, rather than either room on its own.

Note every step, threshold and change of level that somebody has said is hard to pick out, and photograph each one as it is approached.

A photograph taken from the approach shows what somebody sees, which a photograph taken side on does not.

Nothing here judges whether any step or level change is adequately visible. That is a determination for qualified professionals.

Note where a floor meets a wall, a stair meets a landing, or one floor finish meets another and the junction is hard to make out.

These junctions are where people report difficulty, and they are easy to point at once somebody looks for them.

Note any doorway, frame or opening that is hard to distinguish from the wall around it, and in which lighting conditions.

The condition matters, because something obvious in daylight can be difficult under a single ceiling light.

Note any handle, tap, switch or fitting that is hard to make out against the surface it is fixed to.

Recording it as an observation about two things together is what makes it useful rather than a complaint about a fitting.

Write down where small objects are regularly hard to find — on a worktop, in a drawer, on a patterned floor, against a dark surface.

This is a specific and repeatable observation about a particular place in a particular home.

Photograph each of these places under the lighting that is normally on there, rather than turning everything on first.

A photograph taken with all the lights on records a situation nobody actually experiences in that room.

Note every place somebody has said a light or a bright surface is uncomfortable to look towards, and from which seat or position.

The position matters completely, because the same fitting is fine from one chair and difficult from another.

Note which surfaces throw reflections that are commented on — a worktop, a floor, a screen, a glazed picture, a table.

This is an observation about the room rather than about lighting alone, and it belongs in the same record.

Note anywhere a bare lamp or bulb is visible from a seat, a bed or a walked route, and photograph it from that position.

Photographing from the seated position is the only way to record what somebody is actually looking at.

Note where low sun comes into the property, at what time and time of year, and what it makes difficult.

Seasonal low sun is a recurring and predictable condition and is regularly left out of a lighting conversation.

Write down anything in the home that has been covered, turned away, unplugged or avoided because somebody found it too bright, and when that started.

These adaptations are the household's own evidence and are more reliable than any general description.

Note which rooms are much brighter or darker than the ones next to them, and which doors are usually open between them.

Moving between two very different conditions is frequently what is being described as a problem.

Note every switch that somebody feels for rather than sees, where it is, and what is around it on the wall.

Feeling for a switch is an observable behaviour and a very precise piece of information about a particular position.

Write down every place in the home where somebody has to cross a dark space in order to reach the switch that lights it.

This is one of the most common findings in a record like this and one of the easiest to describe to an electrician.

Note any switch plate where nobody is sure which switch operates what, and how the household currently works it out.

A switch nobody understands is one that gets used by trial and error, which matters in a dark room.

Note any control, dial or display in the home that somebody has said is hard to read, and where it is.

Recording the object and its position keeps this an observation about the home rather than about anybody.

Nothing here determines what any control should be replaced with or how. That follows advice from qualified professionals.

Write down what people use instead when they cannot find a switch — a torch, a phone, a lamp left on, feeling along a wall.

The workaround describes the problem precisely and is often the clearest item in the whole record.

Note anything left switched on overnight because of any of this, where in the home it is, and whether it disturbs anybody else.

A light left on all night is a compromise between two problems and is worth putting in front of a designer.

Photograph the same room from the same position at several times of day, with whatever lighting is normally on at each.

A set of photographs from one position through a day says more about a room than any description of it.

Note at what point in the day the lights get switched on in each room, and whether that has changed.

A change in when a household switches on is a simple, datable observation about how a room is being experienced.

Note what each room is like on an overcast day compared with a clear one, and whether the household responds differently.

Overcast days are the ordinary condition for much of the year and are rarely the condition a room is judged in.

Write down any room somebody has stopped using at certain times of day, what they do instead, and roughly when that changed.

A room that has gone out of use at a particular hour is a strong and specific observation.

Note anything that used to be done in one room and now happens in another, and whether light is the reason given.

Tasks migrate towards better light, and where they have moved to is often the most comfortable place in the home.

Note when curtains and blinds are opened and closed in each room, and whether any are kept closed at times you would not expect.

A blind kept down during the day is answering something, and it belongs in the record alongside everything else.

Read the record back and take out anything that proposes a solution, keeping the observations, the photographs and the words people used.

A record of observations lets a professional see the problem; a record of proposals only lets them respond to yours.

Ask whether a lighting designer, a qualified electrician or another professional should look at this first, given what is in the record.

These are different conversations, and asking the wrong one first produces an answer to a different question.

Ask what else the professional would like recorded, at what times of day, over how long a period, and in what form.

A household can observe a home across seasons in a way no visit can, and most professionals will say what would help.

Ask what should be established before anything is changed, and which decisions close at which stage of any work.

Lighting decisions close earlier in a project than owners expect, so the timing is a question worth asking directly.

Keep any question about somebody's sight entirely separate from the lighting conversation, and take it to an appropriately qualified professional.

These are two different subjects with two different professionals, and mixing them serves neither.

Nothing in this record assesses anybody's sight. Questions about sight are for an appropriately qualified professional and must be raised separately.

Keep the same record in the same form after anything is changed, so there is an account of whether it made a difference.

This is the only way anybody finds out whether a change worked, and it costs the same effort as the first record.