Concept-building in blind readers with thematic tactile volumes

Abstract

What makes tactile images well understandable and easy to read? What do blind readers need? This should be the starting question for any project developing technology that may help making tactile images common and easily available. This paper shares lessons learnt in a couple of succeeding projects. In the latest project, that is continued this year, thematic tactile volumes are being developed, that explain to blind people subjects that are otherwise very inaccessible for them. The subjects range from trees, letters, mathematical notation to traffic signs and icons. They even contain the two first volumes of a method that is being developed for reading 3D-images; the first volume comes with 3D-printed objects. They were tested with 10 readers who unanimously stated they would have liked to learn this at school. Dedicon had no opportunity for scientific research; this is a practical report, sharing important empirical information for designers of tactile images and developers of software or hardware concerning tablets giving haptic feedback.