Neil Squire’s Makers Making Change is a program that connects people with disabilities to volunteers who can create affordable assistive technology. Their mission is to foster economic and social inclusiveness for all people with disabilities.

This was an academic group project for a user interaction design course where we developed a lightweight mapping kit that streamlines the collection and mapping of real-world objects into spatial data for computer vision applications, supporting design engineers in producing accurate tactile maps.

what are tactile maps?

Tactile maps are learning tools for helping visually impaired individuals (PVIs) understand new spaces. By using raised lines, textures, braille, and key landmarks, these maps help spatial orientation (Neil Squire, 2024).

Currently, Makers Making Change offers two types of tactile maps readily available for 3D printing:

Customized tactile maps via internal engineers, typically learned about through word of mouth

Online files of roads and intersections—printed and mailed by volunteer makers

To define our problem space, we’ve decided to focus on their internal engineer process for tactile map creations.

the issue

Custom tactile map internal requests currently lack structure, resulting in inefficient, prolonged communication between map requesters and MMC’s internal engineers.

“Some people don’t have access to their floor plans... There’s lots of back and forth between [us and the map requesters].” – Reed Schrad, BC outreach at MMC

On top of that, developed mapping technology exist for geographical information systems (GIS) but indoor applications are still underdeveloped. Even if they have a floor plan, accurate essential information for tactile maps like furniture and fixtures are not always included and is dependent on the scale of the space.

This led us to the research question of “How do sighted individuals interpret and attempt to articulate indoor spaces without prior spatial education?”

To assist our secondary research in answering our research question, we conducted a workshop to understand more about spatial communication, with the goal to emulate the current communication pipeline from sighted map requestors to sighted engineers at MMC.

The workshop consisted of two parts:

1. People with no cartographic experience were instructed to articulating a space with tools of varying depth and dimension

2. Individuals with experience fabrication 3D spaces to review the results created from Part 1

We compared three methods to learn more in depth about spatial capturing techniques:

(1) Sketches to understand their basic mapping principles

Most difficult to convert

3D block models

3D block models better match how engineers think about space, but they’re cognitively demanding for requesters and often poorly executed.

(3) Videos to understand ease of documentation

Using these artifacts from Phase 1, we asked the engineers to rank each participant’s result, and most importantly why they are easier or harder to convert.

A final interview was then conducted with each engineer, covering which of the three methods would be easiest to convert.

Our primary and secondary research led us to three driving insights:

Rather than prompting individuals on how they choose to represent their space, it’s how their space can be restricted and represented by the system. Semantic context is also necessary for the engineer to make judgements on what to and what not to include.

Untrained individuals lack strategies for spatial documentation, resulting in inconsistent, unreliable work that engineers must reinterpret.

Pack A aims to help the requestor to map the space using familiar objects.

We also learned that untrained individuals lack strategies for spatial documentation, resulting in inconsistent, unreliable work that engineers must reinterpret from scratch every time. This means we need to control the way people annotate, scale, and represent data visually. Things like proper and consistent symbols usage is needed.

For both map requesters and engineers, abstract representations are mentally taxing to interpret.

Spatial representations that resemble real-world objects would result in clearer communication and less cognitive effort.

How might we support map requesters in translating key spatial features of a room into predictable outcomes for engineers?

By introducing a lightweight mapping kit that streamlines the collection and mapping of real-world objects into spatial data for computer vision applications, supporting design engineers in producing accurate tactile maps.

The core of the mapping kit is a sticker system, to help establish key objects and room scale.

the impact

future improvements

Investigate how general 3D representation can be converted, filtered and refined into basic tactile map based on symbol standards.

Pack B converts the positions into computer-vision ready format.

To better understand how this mapping kit works, let’s dive into a user scenario.

After an MMC workshop, Sam, a district vision teacher, sees an opportunity to make their washrooms easier to navigate through tactile maps.

Sam comes across the MMC website and submits a request for a tactile map through the online form, and also uploading some pictures of the washroom to provide context of the space.

An MMC engineer, Alex, reviews the request and contacts Sam to confirm the project. Over email, Alex lets Sam know that a mapping kit will be delivered soon.

Alex prepares a customized kit, selecting the appropriate stickers based on Sam’s submitted photos, and mails it.

After Sam receives the package, she opens the contents at her desk and reviews the instructions.

Sam goes to the washroom and uses the stickers to map out the space, directly on-site using the stickers from pack A. She draws the room’s perimeter based on the size of the sticker with the red marker, and fills in customized areas using the blue marker.

Back at her desk, Sam applies the Part B encoder stickers over their layout created from Part A.

Sam scans their completed sheet and attaches it in an email to Alex.

After receiving and downloading Sam’s work, Alex uploads the file into MMC Mapper. The magic software reads the codes and reconstructs a 3D model of the washroom, helping Alex better understand the space.

Using the STL as a guide, Alex designs and refines the final tactile map, making adjustments based on the needs of the intended users.

3D models, drawings, and photos can easily be revisited all in 1 project in the event that adjustments need to be made.

Refine proposed workflows to encourage co-design with visually impaired individuals.