Comprehending and making drawings of 3D objects by visually impaired people: Research on drawings of geometric shapes by various methods of projection

Abstract

In this study, we investigated the possibility of the early and late blind comprehending and producing tactile drawings by oblique, axonometric or perspective projection, which has been considered difficult to understand for them, especially for the early blind. For this purpose, an experiment was carried out analyzing the following issues: 1)how early and late blind high school students draw four geometric 3D shapes; 2)how they rank tactile drawings of such shapes produced via various methods; development, orthogonal projection, in addition to above three projection methods; 3)their explanations of how these drawings by use of such methods are produced. The results demonstrate that both groups understand drawings via latter two methods well and in addition to the late blind, even the early blind understand drawings via the former three projection methods at least partially, which would lead to better understanding. © 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.