TACTUAL GRAPHICS GUIDELINES

By: Carmen Willings
teachingvisuallyimpaired.com
October 28, 2017

Much of text content in textbooks, handbooks, and worksheets are presented in graphic form. This includes high stakes tests where students will be required to interpret graphs, charts and tactual diagrams. The Braille Authority of North America (BANA) has developed guidelines and standards for the production of tactual graphics. According to BANA, “The purpose of these guidelines and standards is to provide transcribers, educators, and producers with information about best practices, current methods, and design principles for the production of readable tactile graphics.” It is essential for tactual graphics in textbooks and assessments to follow these guidelines.

General Guidelines

1. ​​Decide if a tactile graphic needs to be made at all. BANA includes a decision tree to help determine if it is appropriate to make the tactile graphic.
2. Graphics should be tactually clear and contain only relevant information based on an understanding of what is being taught and what the student’s task is.
3. Graphics should be redrawn in 2 dimensions where possible with the exception of some mathematical and scientific diagrams.
4. Follow the Braille Authority of North America’s (BANA) “Guidelines for Mathematical Diagrams.”

Key Design Guidelines

​BANA provides a downloadable 362 page manual on Tactual Graphics guidelines. The following are just a couple of the key points! ​​Don't be intimidated by the overwhelming amount of rules for creating graphics. Although planning ahead is ideal, some flexibility is permitted in order to provide “on the spot” graphics as needed.

1. Avoid clutter and simplify.
2. Use texture sparingly and only to add information.
3. Limit the lines, points, and symbols on a drawing to ones that can be easily identified one from another by touch.
4. Use different tactile symbols for different types of information.
5. Use lead lines only as a last resort. Use keys or notes as alternatives.
6. Explain and define all graphic symbols, either on the same page, facing page, or special symbols page.
7. Use Grade 2 braille contractions in labels.
8. A two-cell braille symbol is preferable to a one-cell symbol for labels.
9. Try not to break the integrity of a shape with a braille label.

Additional Resources on Tactile Graphics

Braille Authority of North America (BANA)
The mission of BANA is to assure literacy for tactile readers through the standardization of braille and/or tactile graphics. BANA disseminates rules, makes interpretations and renders opinions pertaining to braille codes and guidelines for the provisions of literary and technical materials and related forms and formats of embossed materials now in existence or to be developed in the future for the use of people who are blind in North America. BANA can be found at brailleauthority.org.

Their publication on Guidelines and Standards for Tactile Graphics is available in hardcopy format through the American Printing House for the Blind (APH). This 365 page manual is also available online for download. This can be found on the BANA website. The following are some key points from the guidelines.

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Tactile Graphics
A great resource on everything pertaining to the creation of tactile graphics can be found on the Tactile Graphics site created and maintained by Lucia Hasty, who is a consultant and has developed training materials on tactile graphics. She is also a co-author of the recent BANA Guidelins and standards for Tactile Graphics. 

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​APH's Guidelines for Design of Tactile Graphics
APH specifies guidelines developed out of an APH workshop involving Nancy Aick, Jane Corcoran, and APH staff in July 1997. They are meant to expand on and clarify guidelines. 

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APH's Tactile Graphic Image Library (TGIL)
APH's Tactile Graphic Image Library contains a collection of templates to aid with the creation of tactile graphics. Visit APH and register for free to access the Image Library and find templates for your needs. 

Good Tactile Graphic: Booklet
This booklet, available through APH, provides specific guidelines for the design of tactile graphics, expanding on those mentioned in the videos on the Good Tactile Graphic DVD. It also provides further resources and information that may be of use to creators of tactile graphics. In addition, it contains actual samples of some of the tactile graphics depicted in the videos.

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Additional Tactile Graphics Pages...

Creating Tactile Graphics
​Tactile Graphics Instruction

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TVI’s Guide to Teaching the ECC: An Activities Based Curriculum for Teaching Students who are Blind or Visually Impaired
The TVI’s Guide to Teaching the ECC is a digital pdf available for download. It is designed specifically for fellow itinerant Teachers of Students with Visual Impairments (TVI’s), and consists of over 400 activities and topic areas of discussion for instructing students in the Expanded Core Curriculum. The activities are age-neutral and multi-sensory and therefore can meet the needs of the broad range of students served on an itinerant caseload serving. The activities can be individualized to the students various learning modalities and scaffold in order to challenge students but ensure success. Select those activities that align with the student’s learning objects based on the student’s unique visual needs and academic and developmental level. In addition to the core activity areas, each of the 32 Thematic Units incorporates additional unique ECC concepts and skills providing you with a years’ worth of activities. These units are cyclical and can be used repeatedly to help students build on prior knowledge and develop a deeper understanding of concepts. Each unit includes suggestions for activity adaptation associated with the unit. These include lists of objects, possible community-based experiences, environmental print, poems, children & young reader books, children's songs, pop culture songs, movies, and websites.


In addition to the book, the following two supplements are included:
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·      TVI’s Guide to the ECC Activities Checklist


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TVI's Guide to the ECC Product details
·      Digital pdf download: 346 pages (11 pt font)
·      Publisher: Teaching Students with Visual Impairments
·      Author: Carmen Willings
·      Language: English


Visual Efficiency & Near Magnifier Fluency Worksheets: TVI's Guide to the ECC Grab and Go Supplements
The Near Magnifier Fluency Worksheets is a Grab and Go supplement to the TVI's Guide to Teaching the ECC. This workbook is a pdf download that can be printed on demand for use with students. It contains five different types of worksheets for developing visual motor skills and near magnifier fluency skills particularly with the use of a video magnifier. As a companion to the TVI’s Guide to the ECC, the worksheets correspond to each of the 32 ECC Thematic units. The worksheets, along with a list of environmental print for each thematic unit, are designed to help students refine their visual motor skills while reinforcing ECC concepts presented in the thematic units.  


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Visual Efficiency & Near Magnifier Fluency Worksheet Details:
·      Digital pdf download: 210 pages
·      Publisher: Teaching Students with Visual Impairments
·      Author: Carmen Willings
·      Language: English


Thematic Keyboarding & Braille Fluency and Maintenance Worksheets: A TVI’s Guide to Teaching the ECC Grab & go Supplement
The Thematic Keyboarding & Braille Fluency and Maintenance Grab and Go ECC worksheet packet is a print on demand workbook that contains worksheets in print and simulated braille to use for data collection. Present the student with a hard braille copy and use the worksheets to document accuracy and fluency in reading braille. As a companion to the TVI’s Guide to the ECC, the worksheets correspond to the ECC Thematic activities presented in the curriculum guide. These word lists and sentences will help the student refine their keyboarding or braille reading skills while bridging ECC concepts presented in the thematic units. Although the lists and passages can be produced using a manual braillewriter, you may also copy and paste the passages into any braille translation software for quick production on an embosser. They may also be entered into a typing program such as APH’s Talking Typer to build keyboarding fluency.


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Thematic Keyboarding & Braille Fluency Worksheet Details:
·      Digital pdf download: 338-page print and simulated braille worksheets
·      Publisher: Teaching Students with Visual Impairments
·      Author: Carmen Willings
·      Language: English


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The Thematic Vocabulary Cards and Checklists Grab and Go ECC supplement is a 446 page pdf downloadable print on demand workbook that includes 2940 vocabulary card on 3 1/2" x 2" templates divided by each of the 32 Thematic Units along with a checklist of each unit words in print and simulated braille. As a companion to the TVI's Guide to the ECC, the vocabulary cards correspond to the ECC Thematic activities presented in the curriculum guide. 


Additional Use:
Teachers of Students with Visual Impairments can have a extremely varied caseloads. It is possible to go several years without having a student on your caseload who requires braille instruction. Like other skills, if you do not practice your braille regularly, it is easy to lose those skills. Use these checklists and cards to maintain your braille skills. Fold the checklist along the line dividing the print from the braille. Choose to either read the print and produce the word in braille using a braillewriter or read the simulated braille and decode it. Finally, these vocabulary cards and checklists may be used with family members or peers who are interested in learning and practicing the braille code.


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Thematic Vocabulary Cards and Checklists Details:
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·      Publisher: Teaching Students with Visual Impairments
·      Author: Carmen Willings
·      Language: English


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