A monochrome image of a Tactile Braille Map Board displaying a museum map and its corresponding key, featuring QR codes and accompanying text which reads "audio description" and "sign language". The Direct Access logo is displayed in the corner.

Tactile Braille Map Boards

Tactile Braille Map Video

Many map boards offered to the general public are overly complicated, inaccurate, or inaccessible to disabled people. Direct Access are proud to offer our solution.

Check out the launch video for our Tactile Map Boards and learn what went into creating this innovative wayfinder that is allowing facilities to offer accessible and up to date information to disabled people.

Designed by a team of disabled people

Manufactured using recyclable materials

Serviced regularly with updated audio-visual content

Consultation throughout the whole process

A black Tactile Map Board with embedded braille text, a colour-coded key of symbols and a tactile rendition of the Expo 2020 Museum in Dubai on a sunny day. Behind it is the entrance to the Expo Museum.

The Tactile Braille Map Board is a static map that utilises Audio Described and localised Sign Language QR codes to allow its users access to digital, portable way finding information on their mobile phone devices.

The physical map board contains information about the environment in which it is situated, as well as a key to identify the various characters on it. All elements on the map are made from Braille, allowing the map to be interpreted both via sight and touch. The accompanying Audio Description QR code generates an audio file that also allows the user to interpret the map’s information via hearing.

Unmatched Inclusive Design

Coloured, textural information is displayed in detail using a high contrast palette to further enhance apparency, while bespoke Sign Language content tailored specifically for each individual map, eliminates the need for an in-person interpreter by providing descriptive, easily updated navigation information.

The map board can also be used by non-disabled people as any other static map.

The face of the Map Board can also include, upon request, a custom Tactile Model, designed in the image of a particular feature of the location, or even as a miniature version of the site itself.

Including a Tactile Model on your Map board offers increased accessibility to people with visual impairments; enhancing a visitor’s ability to visualise a key part of your site using only their sense of touch. It is a best practice approach that reaches beyond mere compliance.

A wide shot photograph of a Tactile Map Board on the Expo City Dubai site as seen at night time.
A close-up photograph of a QR code on a grey tactile map board. Underneath the QR code text reads "Sign Language" and a translation of the text in white raised braille dots.
  • Details thought through: The Tactile Braille Map Board features detailed Braille touchpads for each character of the map and key, with pictorial symbols for children, complimented by a tasteful yet attractive colour contrast, and an instantly recognisable layout.
  • Quality you can trust: All our map boards are built by a UK manufacturer.
  • Colour customisable: Available in seven different colours to suit your branding (subject to RNIB guidelines).
  • Sustainable: The steel frame of the map can be recycled.
  • Regular Updates: Unlike static maps that require manual installation of fresh information, Tactile Braille Map Boards operate with dynamic content updates as and when the owner requires them. This means that any new information the owner provides to Direct Access will become accessible within the QR audio-visual content by users within days in a localised Sign Language or audio-described format.
A man in a green polo shirt wearing gloves reaches into a large 3D printer to ready the space for construction of a 3D model.

3D Printed

Tactile Models

Tactile Braille Map Board displaying a museum map and key, featuring QR codes that link to audio description and sign language videos in a warmly lit building.

Tactile Braille

Map Boards

Direct Access logo.

Unit 3706,
Platinum Tower JLT-PH1-12,
Jumeirah Lakes Towers,
Dubai,
UAE.

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