3D tactile maps for visually impaired

I am making tactile maps for blind and with poor eyesight.

Produced maps were donated to schools for the blind children. Each of them was custom made and depicted local areas especially important for learning how to move across the city, for example map of a specific crossing.

As part of this project I:

• made multiple maps
• documented design process
• documented how such maps can be made
• created an open source project allowing easy generation of SVG maps from OpenStreetMap, for any location on the world. This tool runs in a browser, and is easy to use.
• created map styles allowing an automatic generation of design files of laser cut maps

I learned a lot thanks to help from various people. I want to again express thanks to people with a sight impatient who tested maps and prototypes. And teachers from the school for the blind for their help in design and redesigning of the map. And people who are experienced at using laser cutters and shared their knowledge with m

This work was partially funded by OpenStreetMap Foundations with 1630€ grant - thanks for a help.

Partially it was done on my own, without payment but if I will find some another sponsor I would be able to work far more on that :)

Producing maps costs money (laser cutter access, plywood and plexiglass) and takes massive amount of time, so what I can do as a hobby is only part what is needed. Sadly I am not independently wealthy, so I hope that will find some sponsorship again.