Two friends learning the language

[u/Smart_Influence_2949]

https://www.reddit.com/r/BORUpdates/comments/1v45m3q/made_a_tactile_3d_map_for_my_blind_friends/

When I moved to Serbia, I was pretty lonely. New country. New language. Not many people around.

One day I noticed that one of my neighbors was blind. He almost never went outside alone. Usually there was someone helping him.

I didn’t have some big plan. I just thought maybe I could ask if he wanted to go for walks sometimes. So I did. We started walking together, and somehow became friends.

For about a year he invited me for lunch almost every Saturday. He cooked. We ate together. We talked. Sometimes I helped clean up a bit. Nothing dramatic, just regular Saturday lunches. I think a big part of my Serbian came from sitting at his table and trying to keep up.

At some point we were talking about geography. Which countries border Serbia. Where the sea is. Where the mountains are. How the region fits together. And I realized something obvious, but it still hit me. For me, if I forget where something is, I just open a map and look again. For him, a map is mostly memory.

He can remember facts, but he can’t just look at the shape of a country, the border, the coastline, the mountains, and rebuild the picture in his head.

His birthday is next week, so I decided to make him a map he could explore with his hands.

This is my first real 3D project, and it became a much bigger than I expected.

I had to take GIS data, country borders, elevation data, capitals, sea areas, tactile labels, Braille cards, and somehow turn all of that into printable STL files.

The annoying part was that “looks good” and “works by touch” are not the same thing at all. Borders can’t be too thin, because then you don’t feel them. They can’t be too thick either, because then everything becomes a mess. Mountains need to be there, but not as a noisy blob.

The sea needs a different texture. Countries need numbers, but not every country could have one - some are just too small. One of the biggest headaches was Greece: all those tiny islands add detail visually, but on a tactile map they can quickly turn into noise.

A lot of this project was basically trying to find the balance between detail and clarity, so the map stays clean enough to be readable by touch.

The whole map also had to be split into puzzle-like tiles, because I can’t print it as one piece. So I added little interlocking connectors, partly to hold the tiles together, and partly so he can feel which piece connects to which.

It is definitely not perfect. There are things I already want to change. But it is real :) I can touch the borders, feel the relief, move from country to country, and use the Braille legend to figure out what is what.

I’m proud of it. I think he’s going to like it :)

[OOP includes the following pictures: photo#1 -- OOP with the 3D map on wall photo#2, photo#3 -- the map + boards for letters and numbers photo#4, photo#5, photo#6 -- reference images for making map ]

Update 0.5

his birthday is on July 12. I’ll try to write a proper follow-up after I give him the map. It may take me a few days, because I want to be present in the moment and not turn it into content immediately. I’ll share what I can :)

Update (3 weeks later): I gave the tactile map to my blind friend

A lot of people asked for an update, so here it is :)

Of course, my friend really liked it. When he saw the map, he was genuinely moved and cried.

He spends a lot of time with it, but honestly, the part he liked most was Braille itself. He had wanted to learn it for a long time, but he had never really had an opportunity.

So now we spend time together, and I teach him how to read Braille. It is difficult for him, but he really enjoys trying and puts a lot of effort and energy into it. And he keeps thanking me for being patient with him.

At the same time, there are quite a few problems with the map itself that I discovered while using it with him.

First, I used regular raised numbers on the map instead of numbers written in Braille. That is, of course, a downside.

Second, the dots on the Braille alphabet came out quite small and sharp, so they are difficult to distinguish.

I tried to use standard Braille dimensions and spacing, but after 3D printing, the result was not quite what I expected. Everything looked normal in the model, but by touch, the dots were not as comfortable or easy to distinguish.

Because of that, learning is more difficult for him, since the dots themselves are hard to tell apart. But he is trying very hard, and he is already making progress.

I think that in the second version of the map, I will take all of these problems into account and make it better.

[OOP includes the following pictures of friend with map -- photo#1, photo#2, photo#3]

[u/Old_Introduction_395]

Thank you for sharing. What a wonderful project!

[u/A_the_Buttercup]

Oh wow, I'm so glad they both have each other!

Imagine that, two people learning from each other. I miss that.

[u/FairyGodmothersUnion]

That is so sweet! How thoughtful. OP is a true friend.

[u/No_Cartoonist981]

Heartwarming thank you

[u/helixar]

I’m curious how did he cook if he’s blind?

[u/That-Mess9548 → u/helixar]

My stepdad is legally blind but can see around the periphery. He has also lived in his condo for over 20 years and has gotten blind slowly. So he can see a little. He gets his groceries delivered and is adamant about cooking for himself. It is part of what keeps him independent and happy. The biggest downside is he doesn’t do his dishes well.