The project entailed designing a public, interactive installation to be used by both the visually impaired
and the sighted through sonic and tactile experiences to generate empathy.
and the sighted through sonic and tactile experiences to generate empathy.
4 weeks, Team of 4
Our senses help us perceive our environment. This project aimed to treat the senses beyond sight, through concepts of inclusive design.
Communicating with written words, leaves a gap between the sighted and the visual impaired.
The Braille Message Board aimed to bridge that gap.
The Braille Message Board aimed to bridge that gap.
Each Braille character is composed of six dots arranged in different combinations, which were made interactive in the form of push buttons. 152 Braille characters were made using click pens(6 per character), which was a conscious reference and juxtaposition of writing tools usually used by sighted people.
The dots within each character, as well as the characters needed to be spaced at specific distances to form Braille characters. The installation was set up on a crowded street in a prominent area in Bangalore. Passers-by and visually impaired children from schools visited during research, were invited to leave messages for each other on the Braille board.
The second installation of the project involved embedding motion sensors in an enclosed space, to trigger various sounds; providing an illusion of being displaced to a different environment. The aim was to generate empathy in the sighted while trying to navigate in an unknown space without their sense of sight. Also serving as a way for the visually impaired to experience different sounds in the same space.
A few key cards, postcards and a poster used for communicating the project.
Participants were encouraged to leave messages in braille on the board(pictured below), by pressing down on the click-pens, and referencing the above postcards as keys to translate the messages.
