Map for blind people

Map for blind people?

Blind people sometimes ask me where we are, when walking in parks around Antwerp. Since answers like “Rivierenhof is East from Borgerhout, further North than Berchem” are kinda vague, I decided to create a map for them.

Triangles?

All parks and some other sites of interest are marked with a triangle. Each triangle contains a number or two letters that can be found in the legend. In hindsight it would have been better to use circles, since circles can contain one more Braille character than triangles.

Braille

The braille on the map is readable for blind people. Though it is sometimes sharp, even after some sanding and polishing. I tried cutting the top of the dots, but that doesn't help much. Using nylon-PLA is a bit better than standard PLA for this.

Nozzle size

Printing one puzzle piece of this map with a 0.60 nozzle takes about four hours, of which the last 30 minutes require three color changes. Quality may be improved using other materials than PLA, or smaller nozzles. A 0.25 nozzles takes over 30 hours to print one piece.

Colors for blind people?

The blue is only 0.15 or 0.30mm high. This allows city names readable for seeing people so they can assemble the puzzle (and provide other help). The red is for district or community borders and is 0.60 high. The white is 0.90 or 1.0 high and is for the highways, the braille and the triangles.

These colors are a visual check for me in the slicer (and help seeing people to assemble the puzzle).

Better next time

Triangles instead of circles was obviously the wrong choice.

Some of the Braille is too close to other objects (like the E19 tunnel aka Craeybeckxtunnel).

Maybe the dovetails (zwaluwstaart in Flemish) should be replaced by magnets.