Community-based, inclusive design of a 3D tactile map to enable playground navigation for children who are visually impaired and blind.

Abstract

The LSU Community Playground Project (LSUCPP) collaborates with communities (especially the true experts at play, the children) to design and build playgrounds that reflect "the soul of the community." One member of the LSUCPP undertook a research project in an effort to design better playgrounds for use by children who are visually impaired or blind. A recommendation from this research was to provide a 3D-printed tactile map of each play area, such that children who were visually impaired or blind could feel the location and type of equipment and ground surfaces prior to entering a playground, which would enable them to play independently. In this paper, we tell the story of how engineering students and faculty collaborated with children with visual impairments or blindness and their teachers and professional staff to co-design and build a 3D printed tactile map at the Louisiana School for the Visually Impaired (LSVI). Specifically, we detail how we co-designed this artifact, the ways in which the artifact developed due to this inclusive approach, briefly present the design, and discuss how engineers engaged in the design of assistive technologies can put inclusive design principles and community-based design processes into action.