Environmental Legibility

The ease with which people can perceive, understand, and form mental maps of a physical environment in order to orient themselves and navigate through it. Coined by urban planner Kevin Lynch, legibility refers to the visual clarity of a cityscape or built environment — how readily its parts can be recognised and organised into a coherent pattern. In accessibility contexts, environmental legibility extends beyond visual perception to encompass how well an environment communicates its spatial organisation through any sensory channel. For people with visual impairments, legibility can be enhanced through assistive technology that provides information about paths, landmarks, decision points, areas, and functional elements that sighted people perceive visually.