Called Technology for Making Tactile Maps of Heritage Parks, the project is being conducted by a team of specialists in nature conservation and geodesy, as well as with experts on blindness and education, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
The scientists represent Warsaw’s Military University of Technology (WAT) and Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University (UKSW), as well as the Polish Association of the Blind (PZN), among other institutions.
3D-printed touch maps of parks
WAT’s Albina Mościcka, who leads the research team, told the PAP news agency that “the modern technology of 3D printing may be used to print touch maps that will facilitate access to cultural facilities for the blind and visually impaired people.”
UKSW’s Emilia Śmiechowska-Petrovskij, a specialist in blindness and education, said that blind and visually impaired people “need touch maps not just for public facilities ... but also for other public spaces, including recreational sites such as city parks.”
Touch maps that reflect a park’s style and beauty
According to Mościcka, existing Braille maps of parks focus on navigation, showing “mainly the network of paths and a lot of green colour that stands for the park’s nature,” but neglect the “unique composition” of diverse natural and architectural elements that “define its style and beauty.”
The new project aims to devise touch maps that will "reflect the style of a given green space," whether it’s "a Baroque garden," such as Warsaw's Wilanów Park; "a Japanese Garden," such as the one in the southwestern Polish city of Wrocław; or "an English Garden," such as the Krasiczyn Garden in southeastern Poland, she told the PAP news agency.
Blind and visually impaired people already use various smartphone apps for spatial orientation and independent movement, as well as beacon-based navigation systems such as Totupoint, with sound beacons already installed in some 1,000 places in Poland, according to PAP.
Funded by Poland’s National Centre for Research and Development (NCBR), the Technology for Making Tactile Maps of Heritage Parks project has been nominated for the 2023 Polish Intelligent Development Award, “for pioneering scientific research designed to improve the accessibility of tourist and cultural facilities for blind and visually impaired people, which helps improve their quality of life,” according to officials.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, PZN, UKSW
