Lessons Learned Building Low-Cost DIY Tactile Graphics and Conducting a Tactile Drawing Club in Colombia During COVID-19

Abstract

Perceiving images and drawing are fundamental parts of human life, and thus access to them should be a universal right. However, there is a large breach for people with visual impairments to access diverse graphics, let alone drawing. There are several techniques of tactile graphics, such as swell paper, Braille embossing, and thermoform that help to alleviate this gap. However, in developing countries, the high cost and lack of access make them impractical. In this work, we describe our experience improving access to tactile graphics and drawing in Colombia. We created low-cost, effective and efficient, tactile graphics and drawing techniques that improve on current solutions. These techniques were created from the best practices of two projects adapting pieces from the Colombian art heritage [52, 53] for blind and visually impaired people. They were then applied to a third project: running a virtual tactile drawing club with blind and visually impaired participants in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. The lessons learned from these experiences are presented in this paper with the hope they can help the community democratize access to tactile graphics.