LIGHTING RESEARCH:
Lighting the Way for the Elderly

The ability to handle glare, see under low light levels, and distinguish color is often greatly reduced as we age. Now help is available through a new set of publications that tell how to improve lighting for the elderly.

Photo Credit: "before" Kevin Simonson; "after" Randall Perry Photography

This summer, Rensselaer’s Lighting Research Center (LRC) will publish one of the first comprehensive guides to improve lighting for seniors.

A grant from the AARP Andrus Foundation will allow Mariana Figueiro, LRC program director, and Peter Boyce, professor of architecture, to translate the results of the LRC’s work into three separate brochures: one for the general public, including older adults and their families; a second for home designers, architects, and builders; and a third for caregivers and the medical community. The brochures will provide guidelines and educate people on the special lighting needs of older adults.

Some of the principles they will discuss have already been published through the LRC’s Demonstration and Evaluation of Lighting Technologies and Applications (DELTA) Program, which has undertaken evaluation of the lighting in South Mall Towers, a senior residential facility in Albany, and McClean Village Apartments, an independent living facility for seniors in Simsbury, Conn.

“This project will make people aware that they can improve their daily lives through lighting and teach them how to do it,” explained Figueiro.

The LRC is the world’s largest university-based center for lighting research and education.

CONTACT: Theresa Bourgeois, (518) 276-2840, bourgt@rpi.edu

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