Tactile Maps

Amy Standen Post on Jan 31, 2008 by
Topics: Engineering, Health, Radio
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Human beings have used maps to describe the world for thousands of years. Blind people have used Braille for about 150. But there’s never been a way for blind people to have easy access to maps of everyday places. Until now. Amy Standen reports.
You may listen to the "Tactile Maps" radio report online, as well as find additional links and resources.

Amy Standen is a Reporter for QUEST and Radio News at KQED-FM.

latitude: 37.7909, longitude: -122.434

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  • http://brandonnugent.com Brandon

    Fascinating topic. I heard this on the radio this morning. I'm curious how well tactile maps could be used to educate 'seeing' map users for topographical navigation. Feeling where the contour lines are on a map to help communicate hills and valleys would be useful as a learning tool.

    Cheers!
    -Brandon

  • Amy Standen

    Hi Brandon! Having handled the maps, I know it would take a *lot* of training for me to learn to get around on them. (For one thing — I can't read the Braille street names.) So would I also be improving my ability to use topographical maps along the way? I don't see why not.

    I didn't get into it much in the story, but scientists at Smith Kettlewell are interested in using MRIs to see how blind people's brains and sighted people's brains respond to map-reading.

    It's known that the visual cortex "lights up" when blind people read braille, the same way it lights up when a sighted person reads text. In other words, as far as the brain is concerned, you don't necessarily need eyes to see.

    So what about maps? Does the parietal cortex of a blind person "light up" when he or she reads a map with her fingers the same way it lights up when a sighted person reads a map with her eyes?
    Interesting stuff.

    Thanks for writing!
    Amy

  • Ken-ichi

    Very interesting story. Could you possibly post some photos of the street maps? I found some diagrams in this paper by Josh Miele and the people at Touch Graphics and this Google Tech Talk by Dr. Miele, but not too much in the way of actual photos. I guess it's hard to to show a white sheet with tiny bumps, but maybe some well-lit macro shots?

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  • Robin C. Lovering

    I work in Facilities Services at a University. One of my functions is to produce maps of the campus. Additionally I serve on the University committee on Persons with Disabilities. I have been trying to find source that can produce tactile maps of the campus directly from my CAD files. This broadcast excited me and would like to follow-up with a obtain information on how to have a map produced. Can you provide me some contacts?

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  • http://www.LindaSMarks.com Linda Scheifler Marks

    The broadcast mentioned links at http://www.kqed.or/quest that would provide links to a website that showed the maps and how to acquire them. I have not found such a link. Did I miss it? Can you provide it? Thanks.

  • http://www.kqed.org/quest Jenny Oh

    Hi Linda, you can can order tactile maps by calling Lighthouse for the Blind at (415) 694-7363, or by emailing t-map@lighthouse-sf.org.