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HMW
How might we make learning more accessible and inclusive for all students?
is an interactive tactile communication tool designed to enhance real-time communication within education for blind and low-vision students, helping them to be more creative, expressive, gain knowledge, and empower true learning.
A corresponding Primo app streamlines the creation of tactile images, transforming the cumbersome process of creating tactile images into a simple, efficient few clicks. This dramatically improves accessibility for sighted teachers and guardians.
The Primo device efficiently converts digital images into tactile forms, allowing blind and low-vision students to physically engage with organic shapes and learning materials almost instantly—a stark contrast to the lengthy wait times of the past.
Beyond educational environments Primo encourages students to become creators, providing tools to craft their own tactile images and share them within the app community.
By clicking down the cells, primo facilitate the creation and receipt of tactile images—that can be turned into digital formats—Primo forges a connection between tactile and digital learning.
Context
Today, classrooms are all about screens and smart boards. According to 2022 data from National Assessment of Educational Progress,
“44 percent of math teachers used this technology all or most of the time.” From my research many of subjects were taught with screens and or any forms of technology.
However, what's engaging for some can be isolating for others. Blind and low-vision students often struggle in standard classroom settings due to a lack of resources.
In the United States alone, nearly 20 million people face visual impairments, joining over 285 million worldwide facing similar challenges.
Even though 80% of blind and low-vision students have some vision, schools often fall short in providing extra tools like tactile graphics. So, students rely on their remaining vision and the guidance of their teachers.
For research, I interviewed 17 people in blind and low vision community and joined 5 observation and 2 activities
conveying non-textual information including tactile representations of pictures, maps, graphs, diagrams, and other images. A person with a visual impairment can feel these raised lines and surfaces to obtain the same information that sighted people get through visual images.
Problem area
Ideations
I wanted something that can extract the outlines for the digital graphics that can be printed in a thermoform tactile printing machine.
Or like a device that can transform digital images into tactile images.
Features & Benefits
Create & Iterate
Tried to print out different size of cells to decide what can be the best size for students.
Primo 1.0 had much bigger cells and the gap between the cells were bigger too.
After the usability with Ming (blind, inclusive advisor), I get to iterate to make Primo 2.0!
This is Primo 2.0 made with cardboard to test out.
is for beginners to create tactile graphics, along with the tactile graphic braille alphabet cards, tailor-made for students with visual impairments and those developing their tactile sensitivities for future braille literacy. These cards are enhanced with detailed illustrations by a skilled blind cartoonist, featuring thick outlines to aid readability for blind and low-vision users.
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