Who We Are & Why Now

A perception-expanding organization.

Open World Design (OWD) exists because the way a society perceives is the way it builds. We work with blind and low-vision people, seniors, the organizations that serve them, designers, museum curators, researchers, and storytellers to widen what gets noticed — and therefore what gets made.

What we believe

• Accessibility is a creative practice, not a compliance line item.
• Difference in perception is a generative resource for design, art, and public life.
• Story is the fastest route from one nervous system to another.

Why now

Adaptive technology, multisensory media, and inclusive design have reached a point where the limit is no longer capability — it is imagination and coordination. OWD's role is to convene, to teach, to publish, and to make the field's collective intelligence reachable to anyone who needs it.