I found some real interesting stuff about print design for blind people. I Googled different subjects with the word Braille included and was surprised to find how many things relating to print design were made with blind people in mind. Business cards, wine labels, posters, and playing cards all have Braille incorporated into the print design so that blind people could interact with what it was saying.
BUSINESS CARDS:
I saw these business cards that were designed using different textured elements to enhance the “readability” for blind people. Some of the different things used to increase the tactile feel were puff paint, Braille punching, swell paper, felt, and screen printing.
BRAILLE WINE LABLE:
I have previously seen a wine bottle company design Braille wine labels with only Braille and a bright contrasting color for the label, but when I saw these wine labels designed by Michel Chapoutier they took on a whole different look. These labels incorporate a printed design for the seeing and Braille for the blind. This creates an interesting design with the large Braille against the printed design.
BRAILLE PLAYING CARDS:
These playing cards include brail around the printing of the card to indicate which club and number the card is.
Working in the print design field I get inspired by seeing these different ways of incorporating “readability” into print design for the blind. I think that not only can print designers reach a broader audience, but I think that adding a physical texture can make your design really stand out from the thousands of other pieces vying for our attention.
I think that accessibility could be really improved with Braille if there was an easier way to print it on lots of different surfaces cheaply. I see that there are Braliie labelers, but they use a tape and that probably won’t work with most designs. Other Braille labelers are around $700 and can only do 8.5”x11” papers (and may not work on cover paper stock). If there was a way to quickly, and cheaply add Braille to business cards, posters and packaging design I think that many more designers would use it.
Some of the gaps that may even occur if Braille was used is that if there are people who are blind that have not learned Braille, or if a blind person doesn’t have use of their arms to feel the Braille. One way to close these gaps would be to somehow add audio devices into the printed design. At first this may sound silly or impractical, but if you think about those Hallmark cards that sing to you when you open them, it is the exact idea. The Hallmark cards are still reasonably priced with the audio device, still esthetically pleasing, light weight, and send the message via audio. Think if you could get the technology whittled down so you could implant that audio device into a business card that still looks good, or a postcard that you receive in the mail that talks to you when you push the button. The options are endless for audio messages!
I think that the designer should always make designs as accessible to as many people as possible. I know for me part of the hindrance is lack of knowledge on how to get Braille incorporated into design, or how to implant audio chips into postcards. So for designers I think that we first have to care about helping others, and then educate ourselves on how to better reach out with our designs. But even if we never used Braille or audio in our designs, we can use basic principals that all designers should use that will help more people (such as knowing your audience. For older people, using a larger, easier to read font.)
Audio Pod Cast:
I enjoyed listening to the Podcast and even though it was about web design I think that it helped me realize that many people will view my designs and interact with them. I need to remember to make my designs as accessible as possible. I also have to make sure that if I am trying to incorporate elements for people with disabilities that I really try to think from their perspective and test it out. The great example from the Podcast was the Seattle Metro bus route that read the bus routes incorrectly from left to right instead of reading it in the boxes the text was in. Also the website read the words in HTML (I think) so that it would read each word and incorporate works like “Break” and unnecessary info. As designer it is completely useless if we incorporate an element in our designs if we don’t ensure that it works like we intended.
Sources:
Business Cards:
http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2009/july1/degree-shows-09-ravensbourne-graphic-design
Braille Wine Label:
http://bordeaux-undiscovered.blogspot.com/2009/11/braille-wine-labels.html
Braille Playing Cards:
