Tactility and Universal Design

Workshop

This workshop focuses on the development of tactile graphics using 3D printing to assist blind learners with multimodal comprehension of visual content. Discussion will explore issues such as multimodal learning in disability studies, assistive technologies, and digital fabrication in curriculum. After reviewing case studies for the application of digital fabrication within the realm of assistive technologies or design solutions that enable, empower, and destabilize notions of "normal" that permeate our built environments, participants will be presented with a tactile graphic challenge. In particular, the presenter will review the development and exploration of tactile graphics using 3D printing as curricular objects to assist learners who are blind or have low vision with multimodal comprehension of visual content via tactile objects. The focus on digital fabrication and assistive technologies combines important spaces for innovation in art education research that extends important ongoing discourses in disability studies and art education (Derby, 2012; Eisenhauer, 2007; Wexler, 2009). Participants will be taught how to use a simple 3D modeling environment and challenged to create a series of tactile graphics for children's book. The fast-paced design challenge will both introduce concepts of digital fabrication and issues of universal design in curriculum development and the build environment of learners.

Timetable

Intro & case studies of tactile graphics (5 min).
Tutorial on Tinkercad & Thingiverse (10 min).
Small group work to develop one tactile graphic (15 min).
Review and reflection on group work (15 min).

Interaction

Audience participation will be highly interactive through tutorial Q & A, small group wrk, and reflection and review session at the end of the workshop.

Takeaway

The workshop grapples with the impact of socially-engaged design on learning and prototype development of assistive curricular objects that augment the experiences of learners that have limited or no sight by providing tactile experiences that are called tactile graphics. The case studies also reflect on collaboration and open source culture as important contributing factors to the vibrancy of digital fabrication with an added imperative of social impact that makes positive change. It problematizes design and learning within the rhetoric of what it means to be "normal" only to creatively explore and expand our sense of the designed world both through objects and curriculum.

Outcomes

Outcomes of the session can be extended by developing the proposed 3D models into 3D printed objects with more time allotted to 3D printing. The workshop is also a part of a larger set of hackathons focused on developing assistive devices for learning using intense design cycles, participatory design communities and digital fabrication. Participants will be given the option to contribute their work to a larger library of tactiles available for open access.

Abstract

The workshop grapples with the impact of socially-engaged design on learning and prototype development of assistive curricular objects that augment the experiences of learners that have limited or no sight by providing tactile experiences that are called tactile graphics. The case studies also reflect on collaboration and open source culture as important contributing factors to the vibrancy of digital fabrication with an added imperative of social impact that makes positive change. It problematizes design and learning within the rhetoric of what it means to be "normal" only to creatively explore and expand our sense of the designed world both through objects and curriculum. Discussion will explore issues such as multimodal learning in disability studies, assistive technologies, and digital fabrication in curriculum. After reviewing case studies for the application of digital fabrication within the realm of assistive technologies or design solutions that enable, empower, and destabilize notions of "normal" that permeate our built environments, participants will be presented with a tactile graphic challenge. The workshop is also a part of a larger set of hackathons focused on developing assistive devices for learning using intense design cycles, participatory design communities and digital fabrication. Participants will be given the option to contribute their work to a larger library of tactiles available for open access.