Colouring books for blind people

We were interviewed on YouTube!

 

Bad design

If you need to cover your carton of fabric softener in huge ugly DO NOT DRINK warnings, maybe consider that putting it in a carton identical to a juice carton is not the best idea.

Also, there's no braille warning.

Happy World Braille Day!

 Here's a video about the importance of Braille:

And here's a shameless plug for my colouring book for blind and visually impaired people www.kirstymca.co.uk/blind

Adult colouring book for blind people

I keep forgetting to post about my work here!

Warmish off the press...

This is a project I've been working on for a looong time.
An adult colouring book for blind and visually impaired people. You can find it here: www.kirstymca.co.uk/blind

The pictures are printed in raised ink by the very helpful West London Print, and are specifically designed to be as understandable as possible by blind people.

Also, I have scented crayons with tactile symbols on them, so people know which colour is which.

 

A useful tool

A braille stylus is a useful tool. As well as using it to write braille, you can use it to remove hairs and fluff from your hoover brush.

Adult colouring books for blind people

Work in progress...

Yes, believe it or not, this is a thing, but they're usually aimed at children.

 

So I'm working on designs which are clear and easy to understand for blind people, bold enough to colour with scented crayons if desired, but also more mature subjects than clowns and mermaids!

 

I'm not doing this on my own - I'm making prototypes and then passing them on to a blind friend to test. She didn't know what paisley pattern was like, or how big a peacock's tail is (and I've had to make it smaller than reality to fit in) before colouring these pictures!

 

 

In real life they will be professionally printed, and won't have all the uneven lines, spatters and smudges! But for now I'm using embossing powder, on lines drawn with refillable pens filled with a half & half mixture of non-waterproof indian ink and glycerine.

 

Blind ballot

The lady I clean for is blind 👩‍🦯, and I thought I'd show you how we did her postal vote 🗳️, in case the info was useful to anyone else!

 

I put a paperclip between each box. Then I read out all the options, numbering them as I went: "Number 1 - Conservative. Number 2 - Labour" etc... 22 options for the list vote 😆

Then she counted down the paperclips, put her cross under the one she wanted, took off all the paperclips and put the ballot paper in the envelope. 

 

(The white paper is a test run we did to check the crosses would consistently land in the right place).

 

 

LEGO Introduces Braille Bricks to Help Visually Impaired Kids

This is so cool!

We are living in the future

The lady I clean for is blind, and she has just got a new app for her iPad - Tap Tap See. I've downloaded it too, to play with :-)

It's an object recognition program. She tried another one before, which was fun but a bit tricky to use. This one, however, is easier and also gives really useful information, because it reads the text, if any, in the photo.

For me it's just fun, but for a blind person it has a practical purpose. She was given a gift set for her birthday, and with a bit of trial and error she discovered it was Crabtree & Evelyn toiletries, what fragrance they were, and what was in the different bottles.

Now that's useful!

---

Here's my results:

 [edit: it appears there is also some human input in the results]

"turned off computer monitor"
(Useful to know it's turned off.)

"empty 2 slice bread toaster"
(Actually it's 4 slices, but two slots, so I'll forgive it.)

"surgical spirit b.p labeled plastic bottle"
(Exactly the info you'd want to know)

"mod podge matte-mat-mate 236 ml"
(Glad I'm not american - why didn't it read the fluid ounces?)

"black android smartphone turned off"

"canada printed black ceramic mug"

Glad it didn't mention the untidy dining table :-)

"irn bru sugar free plastic bottle"

Now some posters from above my desk:

"family fun day poster"

"sithrah poster"

"white green and black the burrell collection"
(OK, I'd have preferred if it had described the picture)

"does this show the real face of jesus text"

"black and yellow painting mounted on wall"

"male and female body chart"

"people's job print on white printer paper illustration"
(Wow!)

"turned on flatscreen computer monitor"
(I am ashamed at the state of my desk. But not ashamed enough to do anything about it.)

I had taken some photos before for the previous app (on my old phone, hence blurry photos) - here are the results with this app:

"brown wooden wall frame"

"red pink and white rooster artwork"

"brown and white football shaped textile"
(Actually it's an african shield, but amazingly like an american football!)

"white lamp shade"

"white and green bird plastic wall decor"
(Yes, I have these on my wall - I like them!)

"bird's can on grey blue green and yellow floral textile"
(Good reading! Not sure why it's so interested in the tablecloth.)

"white toilet paper in gray steel toilet paper holder"

"white light switch mounted on wall turned on"
(It's a socket, not a light switch. I wonder what country the app is from?)

"green obtuse plant on the brown plastic pot"
(Obtuse? And the pot is made of bark.)

"girl in pink and red lace ruffle dress doll"

"yellow car park near house"

"green plant near bare tree"

"brown concrete animal figurine"
(Actually stone. Interesting it knows it's an animal, but not that it's a snake. My dad carved this in college)

"brown and black dog plush toy on teal white tool box"
(Actually a file, but partly hidden, so pretty good. And it knew he wasn't a real dog.)

"brown bird figurine"

"buttered bread with spread"
(Scrambled egg on toast!)

"green grapes on white green and blue floral round plate"
(It's good at extrapolating.)

"pink and white flower on white ceramic flower vase"

"person in plaid skirts and sling bag"
(I'm sure my dad would be thrilled with that description of his kilt and sporran!!!)

How blind people see the world

Apparently, in one study, when blind children were asked to draw a tree, they drew the trunk as a circle. Logical, when you think of it.

Braille v Print

The problem with knowing a blind person is that you can't lend each other books.

(The advantage is that you can't accidentally lose yourself in their books when you're meant to be cleaning their house)