YWCA Tsing Yi Integrated Social Service Centre organised a programme to lead youngsters to practise design thinking and to facilitate meaningful youth engagement through serving people with visual impairment.

Design thinking emphasises people’s needs when formulating solutions. 12 passionate young people joined the programme and tried to suggest feasible answers to problems faced by the visually impaired, after having in-depth interviews and imitating their subjects to live a normal life.

Knowing that people with impaired vision lack entertainment, volunteers decided to arrange activities that do not require perfect eyesight. For example, they planned to prepare audio description and tactile art so that people can enjoy art through different senses. They also transformed the trendy live action role-playing game into one that players find clues with their ears, nose and hands, instead of their eyes.

The volunteers inevitably thought of the visually impaired as the weak and the needy before meeting them in person. However, they unearthed people’s strengths and were amazed by the wisdom they learnt from everyday life. The programme has finally become a platform to exchange meaningful ideas. Both the young people and the service users look forward to execute the plans mentioned above when the local epidemic subsides.