Blind spots in sighted people regarding tactile images.

Article by Dorine in 't Veld, 23 May 2026.

Introduction

As stressed time and again on handssee.eu, description - only words - are not sufficient to allow a blind reader to build a correct mental representation; tactile support is needed, especially for 3D-subjects. Reality is the best tactile support, but this is not always an option, nor are 3D-models or replica’s. A quick, handy and cheap method is to make tactile images, that even on the spot can be drawn or sketched on normal paper on a silicone baking mat as the lines you draw will rise. Of course sketching on the fly may not always give a beautiful result, but since you can build up the tactile drawing bit by bit and explain each time what the lines, shapes and textures mean – and the blind reader can ask questions – it works very effectively. There are however soms conditions.

Use the SIM (Sculpt-In-the-Mind) method

Condition 1: use the SIM (Sculpt-In-the-Mind) method. It works best when both the (sighted) person who is drawing and the blind reader, know the Sculpt-In-the-Mind or SIM-method. The name is recent, the method that is at its base is old and proven (in environments where it was used in the last 25 to 35 years). It is a simple method: look at the object you are going to draw as it stands before you. Imagine a box (a cube or a block) around it. On each side of the block you draw the silhouette (from above, the side etc.) under a right angle. Now, again in your mind, arrange the ‘views’ as the plan of an unfolded cube or rectangle: front in the middle, top and on top and bottom view under the front view. Side views to the side and back view beside one of the side views. All views neatly correspond to each other. You just went from 3D to 2D! If this is a tactile image the blind reader can go from 2D to 3D, by folding the plan in the mind, while your explanation guides the fingers and explains the object further: what material, feel, colour, weight, smell, sound and/or other relevant features must be added for proper comprehension. (By the way: you will often need only two or three views, as with animals, cups, etcetera). I call this process ‘sculpting-in-the-mind’. You just went from 2D to 3D! This was the good news. Maybe I should have started with the bad news: both parties must learn to work with the method. Industrial designers are very familiar with it, but untrained persons definitely need training first. Tip: use the Roundy book of you can download on Tacticos.eu. Now the blind spots of sighted people. I want to make you aware of this: sighted people who know nothing of how to read tactile images are kind of handicapped when assisting blind readers. Sighted people mostly are unaware: • that every image or drawing has underlying principles Sighted people mostly learned to read images without words from a very young age. For example: orthographic drawings (no perspective) of all kinds of beetles and objects in working and colouring books, artful illustrations in children’s books, comic books, etcetera. They effortlessly see depth in photos and other images with perspective. They learned on the fly and were intensively ‘trained’, yet without explicit training. They only become aware that every type of drawing or image has its own ‘underlying principles’ when they, depending on their education and interest, have to learn to read technical or scientific drawings. One must both learn the ‘form language’ (underlying principles) and have a certain level of pre-knowledge to be able to understand what is drawn - and what is not drawn – and to form a correct mental representation of what is represented, or: for full comprehension. • for (untrained) blind readers a drawing is a foreign language Even the for sighted ‘obvious’ concept of a silhouette is an enigma for blind people who didn’t learn drawing and reading them, like Chinese characters are for sighted readers who didn’t learn to read and write them. Example: Sighted people often say: ‘Well, my child/pupil doesn’t understand this tactile image’, pointing at an image where in the middle we see 5 blocks, the lowest being the largest, and 8 silhouettes of head and neck of different animals like a giraffe, elephant, rabbit, etcetera. On top of the blocks we – sighted people – see 6 candles. The blind child feels 6 sticks with a sort of drop or point above it. Ha: this is a state of the art translation of an illustration in a book where one of the animals birthday is being celebrated. No perspective: that is good; fingers (even of sighted people who close their eyes) don’t feel depth. Our (imaginary) example even is ‘inclusive’ since colour makes it attractive for partially sighted and sighted children and high contrast is applied. But these images are abracadabra for untrained BLV (blind and low vision) children who cannot recognize the silhouettes because they :

1. never learned to read silhouettes (underlying principles)
2. and don’t know the appearance of these animals ‘nor in the real world nor in children’s books) (pre-knowledge)
3. never learned orthogonal or orthographic projection and have no way to know that the blocks of the (exceptionally big) birthday cake are round when seen from above (underlying principles)
4. never learned to draw themselves Tactile images fortunately are more and more used in museums and on heritage sites.

… that must be learned. Sighted people immediately see what an image represents. That is, if the image is made according to ‘underlying principles’ they know. Like: interpreting perspective. Sighted people see depth in photos, paintings and other images with perspective, including bas-reliefs, where the physical depth is deeper than in a 2D representation like a photo, but way less than in reality. Fingers (even of sighted people) don’t feel depth (and in bas reliefs not more depth than there actually is). Blind people must learn and know about these underlying principles in order to be able to understand your explanation.

Beware of the following traps. Museums offer more and more 2,5D- or 3D-printed replicas of paintings. Sighted people don’t see the relief; they see what they are used to, in full colour. This looks great, they think it is an inclusive solution: accessible for everybody. But it is not when the relief doesn’t meet the needs of the fingers and the brain. The fingers must clearly recognize shapes, lines and important details. Then these lines and shapes must get meaning. This is easier when the blind reader can recognize elements and translate them spatially. However, explanation is (almost always) indispensable. In fact it is the other way around: the tactile image supports a good description of the original work of art or photo. The extra explanation with the tactile version guides the fingers and explains how things are represented in the tactile image; what is omitted or added – and things you cannot feel, like the material and/or colour and/or temperature and other features. Silhouettes are used a lot in tactile image books for children. That is good: fingers don’t feel depth in a flat image. But the chance that a child ‘recognizes’ a silhouette is very small. Recognizing presupposes that you already know the silhouette. And though the situation is improving, the chance that a blind child has had a chance to know silhouettes of many different animals, objects or human beings is very small! Sight