How to make illustrations accessible to blind children

Books for blind and partially sighted readers have existed for a long time, but their production is significantly more complex than that of standard publications. The text itself can be translated into Braille, but a much greater problem arises with illustrations.

Haptic books therefore often combine different materials, structures and shapes to best mimic the real properties of the depicted objects through touch. Materials such as textile, paper, wood or plastics are used, for example. The resulting illustrations can be very impressive and easy to understand, but their production is based on time-consuming manual labour.

The costs per title can thus multiply exceed its retail price, and most similar books are produced only in small print runs with the help of subsidies. Compared to standard literature, therefore, the range of titles for visually impaired readers is very limited.

Children's book author Markéta Vítková decided to find a way to offer children more options. Together with the Vodafone Foundation Laboratory, which supported the project, she turned to PrusaLab with the question of whether part of the production could be simplified using 3D printing.

Experiment with reliefs and a change of direction

The first idea was to print the illustrations directly in the form of embossed images. This process would eliminate the need to produce a master plate, which is used in standard production for thermoforming plastic sheeting. It would also dispense with part of the manual processing.

We therefore created several test reliefs and began verifying their usability. Soon, however, it became apparent that the main obstacle is the very layers typical of FDM 3D printing. Visually they may not be prominent, but when running fingers over them, they disrupt the smooth, rounded shapes and create information that is unrelated to the original illustration.

Even variable layer height failed to completely eliminate this effect. Subsequent filling, sanding or chemical smoothing would, in turn, make the whole process significantly more expensive and practically remove the advantage that 3D printing was originally meant to bring.

Instead of trying to mimic classic embossed pages, we therefore changed the whole concept. We decided to create standalone spatial objects inspired by illustrations from Markéta's books. These can offer a much more realistic idea of the object's shape and are not limited by the surface of a book page.

According to the book Kamil – painter of dreams This is how models of the Charles Bridge, a lighthouse, a vintage car, or a pig with wings were created, for example. Another collection was subsequently based on the book The Surprise of Modrovousek the Goblin.

The models were designed to clearly emphasise the basic shapes and characteristic features of the original. Conversely, minor details that would be distracting during tactile perception needed to be simplified or removed entirely.

Testing, sharing and other potential uses

A correctly printed model does not automatically mean a suitable haptic aid. A visually impaired person perceives an object differently than a sighted modeller, who knows its original and can make up for missing information visually.

We therefore presented the entire collection to blind guides from the Invisible Exhibition in Prague. They examined the models one by one and provided us with feedback on their safety, readability and overall comprehensibility. Only after their approval did we publish the files on the Printables.com platform.

For production, we chose Prusament PLA, which offers good printability and allows for easy reproduction on standard home printers. The models were designed to be as simple as possible, although for some it was not completely possible to avoid print supports or splitting into multiple parts with subsequent gluing.

Releasing the models for free solves only one part of the problem. Not every user, family or institution has their own 3D printer available. This is precisely where the community of local printers, schools, libraries and makerspaces can play an important role.

As well as a model database, Printables.com also offers community features and a user map. This makes it possible to connect people who need a model with those who can print it locally. Several sets can be produced for a library, school or community centre, for example, and then circulated among users.

A similar principle can be used outside of children's books. Cultural institutions can work with schools to prepare haptic models of monuments and architecture. Objects that a person cannot easily touch in everyday life because they are too small, too large, dangerous, or entirely fictional also hold great potential.

Another distinct area could be, for example, models of human figures in specific movement poses. A blind person cannot simply observe a instructor's movement, but a spatial model can help them understand, for instance, a specific yoga pose or sports movement.

Result

The result of the project is a collection of freely available haptic models that expands the experience of Markéta Vítková's books while also functioning independently as an educational tool or toy.

The project also demonstrated the limits of the technology. Direct 3D printing of relief illustrations proved unsuccessful due to the layer structure, but a change in approach opened up a new path in the form of full-fledged spatial objects.

The most important part of the whole process was verifying the models directly with visually impaired users. Thanks to their experience, it was possible to create objects that are not only visually attractive, but above all safe, clear and understandable through touch.

In this case, 3D printing does not replace traditional tactile books. However, it offers an accessible extension that can be easily shared, modified, and produced locally according to the needs of specific readers, schools, or libraries.