Talking Tactile Device for Vision Impaired Students

The Talking Tactile Tablet, or "T3", allows students to feel maps, diagrams and other images on of embossed sheets with raised lines and areas, placed on top of a reader similar in size to a laptop computer. The T3 uses touch and sound to allow vision-impaired students of all ages to "read" educational graphics and text will go on the market next month.

When symbols and regions on T3’s tactile surface are pressed, audio information on these images is spoken to the user. Tactile diagrams have been developed before, but the developers of this new system claim it has a uniquely sophisticated sound indexing and navigation system. For example, if a student wants to locate a feature on a map without knowing where it is, he or she can make a request and then place a finger anywhere on the device’s surface, before being guided by speech to the desired location.
 
The T3 has been developed by the UK Royal National College for the Blind (RNCB) with Anglia Polytechnic University and US assistive devices company Touch Graphics. The RNCB has developed 30 sets of diagram sheets on various topics including the skeleton, nursery rhymes and a world atlas and intends to cover all UK National Curriculum topics to assist mainstream schooling for all children. The device costs $1200 USD, with sets of sheets costing $20 to $40 USD.
 
Source: E-Access Bulletin