[accessibleimage] Re: maps for the blind

Hi everybody,

Last year I use the TGD software to make maps for the blind. We did a 
group to decide the best definition to represent the river, the mountain, 
the highway and the cities.
This was the first expirience with regions and this software. I wanted to 
do more specific, like city and your divisions and then from the sqares. 
This program is easy to work with. We need the clean map, and we can 
transforme in to braile.
Do you know this technology?

Happy New Year!

Adriana



"Vince Thacker" <vince@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> 
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[accessibleimage] Re: maps for the blind






Not to be outdone, the London Underground has started to address blind 
people's access requirements. I always found it pretty good when I had a 
bit 
more sight, because the print maps and signs were very clear and large. 
Now, 
however, they are having to look at more fundamental problems of totally 
blind people.

See the RNIB page about the new tactile maps.

http://www.rnib.org.uk/xpedio/groups/public/documents/PublicWebsite/public_tactiletube.hcsp#P11_424


At the moment the maps cover just Old Street, Westminster and Earl's 
Court, 
so this is very much a pilot project. Text descriptions of the system, its 

zones and stations are available from Describe Online.

http://www.describe-online.com/

The tactile maps can be obtained free from London Underground Customer 
Service Centre, Tel. 0845 330
9880 in the UK. I'm not sure there's an international equivalent number, 
but 
see www.thetube.com/ for general information.

Vince.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Karen Gourgey" <karen_gourgey@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <accessibleimage@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, December 29, 2006 5:03 PM
Subject: [accessibleimage] Re: maps for the blind


> Hi Lori and All,
>
> I too am a totally blind pedestrian, who has traveled both with cane and 

> dog.  I am blind from birth, and I have some asymmetrical hearing loss. 
I 
> can usually detect curves in a path, and I certainly think that tactile 
> maps depicting  routes should reflect the basic outline of the route, 
> including curves.  When we did our maps in the '90's of the New York 
city 
> Subway system, we produced one set of maps that were overviews, i.e. 
they 
> showed the ways in which the various subway lines wove through the city 
> and at times intersected with each other.  We also produced strip maps 
for 
> each individual subway line.  Here the goal was to show and give 
> information about all stops along a particular line.  The concept was 
> similar to that used by Joe Wiedel when he did maps of the Washington 
D.C. 
> subway system. The strip maps are event maps, where we elected to leave 
> out the shape of the route, and concentrate on basic information 
regarding 
> stops, and characteristics of each station, such as whether one was 
> leaving the train on to a platform with tracks on one or both sides.  I 
> think the map maker and map user need to decide collaboratively what are 

> the information essentials to be communicated in any given situation. 
> Personally, I appreciate any uncluttered, simple map that gives me  the 
> basic shape of a route.  Once I have that, I can fill in my "points of 
> interest" and they become details of the cognitive map that lives in my 
> head.
>
> Thanks for listening.
>
> Best,
>
> Karen
>
>
> Karen Luxton Gourgey Ed.D
> Director, Computer Center for Visually Impaired People
> Baruch College, City University of New York
> 1 Bernard Baruch Way box H-0648
> New York, NY 10010
> Phone: (646) 312-1426
> Fax: (646) 312-1421
> http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/ccvip
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Kaizen Program" <kaizen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: <accessibleimage@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Friday, December 29, 2006 6:49 AM
> Subject: [accessibleimage] Re: maps for the blind
>
>
>> Hi Lori,
>>
>> You are not alone.
>>
>> I am now totally blind, although I had vision for the first 39 years of 

>> my
>> life, gradually decreasing from full vision to very little before 
losing
>> all. I travel with a cane. I can definitely detect changes in the 
>> direction
>> of paths most of the time. During the past few years I have experienced
>> some hearing loss, a little more in the right ear than in the left ear,
>> which interferes with my sense of direction, but doesn't stop me from
>> noticing changes in direction of a path. It  just interferes with my
>> figuring
>> out where sounds are coming from. I, like you, find it  helpful to have 

>> maps
>> that depict whether or not the path is straight or  angles. I also 
>> generally
>> appreciate knowing the basic layout of a route  so I can figure out 
where 
>> I
>> am
>> going more easily, even though I can be overwhelmed by cluttered 
tactile
>> maps, especially if they are not clearly labeled, or require moving too 

>> much
>> from the map to a key to figure out the labeling code.
>>
>> I am not sure if valuing tactile maps of routes is something that is 
more
>> important
>> for people who have previously had vision than  for those who never 
saw. 
>> I
>> also don't know if blind people who have learned to use maps to gain an 

>> idea
>> of
>> the overall layout of places find this relevant while those who aren't 
>> used
>> to using tactile maps find it less helpful.
>>
>> I just finished reading the book, Touching for Knowing: Cognitive 
>> psychology
>> of haptic manual perception
>> Edited by
>> Yvette Hatwell
>> Universite Pierre Mendes-France, Grenoble
>> Arlette Streri
>> Edouard Gentaz
>> Universite Rene Descartes and Centre National de 7a Recherche 
>> Scientifique
>> John Benjamins Publishing Company Amsterdam/ Philadelphia
>> Translated (and updated) from: Y. Hatwell, A. Streri and E. Gentaz 
>> (2000).
>> Toucher pour connaitre. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
>> Toucher pour connaitre. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
>>
>> It is a very interesting book.
>>
>> One article in particular deals with tactile maps: The tactile reading 
of
>> maps and drawings, and the access of blind people to works of art by 
>> Yvette
>> Hatwell and Francoise Martinez-Sarrochi. They seem to say that people 
>> with
>> some vision and those with some previous vision might benefit most from
>> tactile maps.
>>
>> I think it can be a complex question because blind people often differ
>> greatly in past experiences, past sensory capacities, current sensory
>> capacities, including specifics of vision limitations, hearing 
>> limitations,
>> and tactal capacities, as well as age of onset of blindness (very 
young,
>> middle-life or older), etc. and kind and amount of developed skills.
>>
>> I don't think that laboratory tests can necessarily deal with all of 
>> these
>> complexities fully or adequately because they can be so interrelated.
>>
>> Personally, I really hope we will have more and more good tactile maps 
of
>> local areas as time goes on.
>>
>> Have a happy new year.
>>
>> Sylvie
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "Lori" <twilight2@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
>> To: <accessibleimage@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>> Sent: Thursday, December 28, 2006 6:40 PM
>> Subject: [accessibleimage] maps for the blind
>>
>>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> My apologies if this has already been discussed here or if it isn't
>> apropriate for the list, but after reading the messages about 
production 
>> of
>> maps and someone mentioning in an article that they can't distinguish a
>> curve, etc, I thought I should post.
>>
>> I'm just curious. I'm a totally blind pedestrian who has traveled both 
>> with
>> cane and dog guide. I would say a good percentage of the time I am 
aware 
>> of
>> any alteration in direction of travel or even subtle changes. I find it
>> helpful to have maps that depict whether or not the path is straight or
>> angles. I'm not alone, am I?
>>
>> Lori
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
>
> 


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