Blind people relate to the things around them by touch. They can touch a laptop or a glass of water to perceive their height, thickness, and size. But what about smaller or bigger objects? How do they discover spiders or cathedrals? By exploring tactile graphics or a tactile catalog, which are challenging to create.
We created the “Urban Landscapes” self-describing tactile catalog with the aid of ING Bank Romania to help blind children explore more, learn more, and relate accurately to the world around them.
1. The online campaign
Our sponsor, ING Bank Romania, created a Social Media campaign entitled #candinchiziochii (#whenyoucloseyoureyes) to engage the audience in the creation of the catalog. People had to write in the comment section of the campaign’s post about their favorite place in the city, a place they could “see” with their eyes closed. We chose the topics of the tactile drawings in the catalog based on their answers.
The campaign also turned into a crowdfunding campaign, as people could also donate for the project through ING Home’ Bank.
2. The self-describing drawings within the “Urban Landscapes” tactile catalog
The “Urban Landscapes” catalog contains 50 self-describing tactile drawings. The drawings represent objects blind people cannot relate to but which are part of the everyday urban life. They cover subjects such as animals, nature, buildings, maps, or means of transportation.
The drawings can be explored individually by blind people with the aid of the Tactile Images READER app. You can find out more about it here and download it free of charge from the AppStore.
In 2019, we printed and embossed 14 “Urban Landscapes” catalogs and donated two to each of seven schools for the blind in Romania, which are our partners.
3. How can you get the tactile catalog?
Do you want to have access to all the drawings and explore graphics independently? Just access this link, write your e-mail address, and get the self-describing catalog for free in the blink of an eye.
The 50 tactile drawings in the catalog are also present in the Tactile Images LIBRARY.
You can then emboss the tactile graphics manually, at a low cost, by using only wood adhesive and a syringe. Do you want to learn how? Watch these videos!
4. Other self-describing catalogs
We want to offer the blind the opportunity to study a lot of new spatial concepts, so we created the other three self-describing catalogs: the “Vehicles” catalog, the “Portraits” catalog, and the “Tactile Network” catalog. Read the articles, discover the content of every tactile catalog, and download them for free!
5. Help us create more catalogs
If you want to help us create more self-describing tactile catalogs, please contact us. Because our mission is to empower blind children and give them access to education and visual content, we would be happy to hear about your collaboration idea.
Do you have any questions about the “Urban Landscapes” self-describing catalog? Write in the comment section below!
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