[Artbeyondsightmuseums] Textured images help tactile recognition for the blind

[fnugg at online.no]

The use of different materials with varied textures improves the 
recognition of tactile images by young blind people, researchers from 
the Laboratoire de psychologie et neurocognition (LPNC) (CNRS/Université 
Pierre Mendès France/ Savoie University) have shown. This result, which 
was recently published in the /Journal of Experimental Psychology 
Applied/ was achieved in collaboration with Geneva University's Faculté 
de psychologie et des sciences de l'éducation and Les Doigts Qui Rêvent 
(Dreaming Fingers) in Talant (Côte-d'Or, France). Among other factors, 
the researchers emphasise that early, regular use of tactile material by 
blind children is necessary to improve recognition through touch.

 From birth, sighted children live in a world in which images, 
particularly in children's books, are universally present in their 
family and/or school surroundings. For blind or partially sighted 
children, the situation seems very different. Not only are they deprived 
of natural visual stimuli that other children receive daily, but young 
blind children are also deprived of all the visual images in books, due 
to lack of suitable material.

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-10-textured-images-tactile-recognition.html#inlRlv