Tactile maps are an important means for the education and mobility of people who are visually impaired (that is, are blind or have low vision). Because of the importance of tactile maps, it is essential that they are accessible to people who are visually impaired and correctly interpreted. There has been considerable research on the design of…

A tactile toy for visually impaired children, the "learning pillow" combines a written text (story or poem) with a page-size pillow that has tactile images related to the text. Exploration of the pillow in conjunction with hearing the text stimulates a number of learning experiences. (Author/CL)

More than 60 different tactual maps were created on capsule paper to examine the effectiveness of this process. The medium's composition, steps necessary for map compilation and processing, equipment costs and operations, appropriate symbolization, and advantages and disadvantages of the process are discussed. (Author/CL)

Describes a project in which high school student volunteers designed art activities for blind children. Students incorporated the sensation of motion and texture into their designs for toys, puzzles, games, and story illustrations. (AM)

A 3 year project to develop a beginning braille reading series was undertaken, beginning with research reviews on concept development, tactual perception, braille reading, and general reading. Analysis of vocabulary lists and specifications followed, culminating in development of the readiness, preprimer, and primer readers with accompanying…

A project summary and 20 related papers are presented on the Argonne Braille Machine, a device which produces braille-equivalent information on magnetic tape rather than embossing dots on paper. The summary traces the machine's development while 10 papers cover such issues as user reactions, evaluation proposals, use and care of the machine, the…

The University of Texas at Austin has developed a modular tactual map of the campus and outlying areas to aid visually impaired students. Construction information is summarized. (CL)

Seventy-two sighted college students who studied the braille or Fishburne alphabet for eight minutes were tested for recall. More Fishburne than braille items were recalled, independent of item arrangement. Results suggest that visually impaired persons might use the Fishburne system for labelling personal objects or when braille learning is too…

The author describes a project designed to assess visual, auditory and tactile access to microcomputers for curricular, vocational, and leisure time use by visually handicapped youth. Criteria are proposed to evaluate software for use in computer assisted instruction. (CL)

Case studies of three hearing-impaired four-year-old children revealed that vibrotactile stimulation aids were effective in teaching speech skills. The aid helped the students become more aware of sounds. (CL)

The article suggests the use of non-expert sighted volunteers to teach the reading and writing of Moon Script, a tactual system of raised-line characters similar to the Roman alphabet, to visually impaired people. Experimental courses with both blind and sighted volunteers are described. (DB)

Discusses teaching methods and instructional aids developed to integrate blind students into a private class for elementary-school-aged piano students. Instructional aids incorporate auditory and tactile stimuli to teach music notation skills. Commercial games, like Bingo, were modified with Braille symbols to teach rhythm concepts. (AM)

An audio/tactile course enables blind college students to understand the anatomy of the human brain. Models were designed which allow tactile exploration of the visual fields, retina, optic nerves, and the subdivisions of the tracts and radiations in the brain. (Author/PHR)

An approach to the transcription of visual art into tactile form is described, with regard to the effects of relief, texture, and picture context. The impact of such pictures on the blind user's understanding of spatial relationships, distance, and perspective and as a stimulus for creative artwork is discussed. (Author/DB)

Eleven basic types of visually displayed information that can be, and should be, rendered accessible to the visually impaired user are discussed. Speech, braille, and tactile technology are addressed as well as the innovative technique of "haptic-tactic" display combining a raised dynamic image of the screen's page with speech. (Author/DB)