Mind maps for the blind
It’s not obvious is it? That people who cannot see would be able to carry out an activity that most people would regard as visual in essence.
But more than thirty practitioners of mapping, and one accessibility specialst put their heads together and came up with an extensive list of ideas and options to help a blind student who must mind map for an economics course he is undertaking. You can read here about Mind mapping for people who are blind.
It’s obvious what technology would help most – a matrix of small pins that could reproduce a screen image in a form that can be touched and understood through feeling. There are two such devices but unfortunately one is a prototype (plan b, below) and the other is in development. And even if commercially available, they would be very costly, if the price of refreshable Braille readers is a reliable indication.
We shall be following this, and hope to be able to report how the student progresses with his trials of the many suggestions made.
Roy
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