The 3D Printing of Tactile Maps for Persons with Visual Impairment

The safe and efficient mobility of persons with visual impairment may be secured with the development of new aids, based on new computer methods and technologies. The issue of mobility and accessibility is one of the central concerns in the development of "smart cities" and of accessible service for all inhabitants of urban areas. We will present an automated procedure for the production of tactile maps with the latest 3D printing technology for visually impaired persons. By employing a new method, which entailed the linking of geolocation data (digital maps, digital spatial images), new 3D tactile designing process and 3D print technology, we have reduced the costs and accelerated the production of tactile maps for visually impaired persons, and ensured the transportability of the products by converting them into a digital (STL) format. To exhibit the use of our new methodology, several production cases from Slovenia will be presented: the tactile map of the Slovene Ethnographic Museum, the tactile model of the Secovlje Salina - the traditional production of salt, the tactile plate of the famous Schutze ceramic plate from 1886, the tactile map of the Library of the Union of the Blind and Partially Sighted of Slovenia, and the tactile map for orientation and mobility of the capital of Slovenia, Ljubljana.