Generation and Designing of Tactile Maps in Korea
ISBN 978-85-88783-11-9
Authors
1Kim, Y.; 2Oh, C.; 3Ahn, J.
1KOREA NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION Email: gis@knue.ac.kr
2NAMSEOUL UNIVERSITY Email: ohrora@nsu.ac.kr
3KYUNGIL UNIVERSITY Email: jsahn@kiu.ac.kr
Abstract
A tactile map is a map for blind people and is an assistive tool for visually impaired persons to obtain cartographic knowledge and geographical information. This paper discusses a guideline for tactile maps and diagrams. In this paper, firstly, a sample tactile map applying the guides and standards was generated and presented with a line generation process. Secondly, in relation to the guidelines of the tactile maps, we discussed how the tactile mapping practice should be conducted and the so called ‘The Standards of the Tactile Mapping Practice’ were presented, which would be used for a standard rule and the regulation of the national tactile maps managed by the National Geographical Information Institute, Korea’s national mapping agency. Finally, the details of the usability test would be shown, which evaluated the usefulness of the tactile maps. For the usability test, questionnaires and interviews were provided and undertaken respectively with blind and visually impaired people in special schools in Korea. As new barrier-free laws have been recently proposed in Korea, many braille signs and tactile guide maps have been installed in public and private facilities such as libraries, civil halls, and museums. However, no national guides and standards for tactile mapping and tactile diagrams have been proposed yet. Thus, this paper discusses a guideline for tactile maps and diagrams. In this paper, we reported a new guideline for tactile map design and production and presented a sample tactile map through line generalization method. In this paper, we also addressed three research topics found through a research project. The first finding aimed to present the use of different materials for the tactile maps such paper map materials and production styles. The second study was to discuss the evaluation of the usability of the tactile map readability in terms of the performance of map literacy for blind people. The third study introduces extensive guidelines and standards that can be used to produce several kinds of the tactile maps and diagrams for practical cases in Korea. The usability test was carried out with several types of the tactile maps including different printing formats and map contents such as new types of tactile symbols and map patterns. Following the usability tests, a questionnaire survey was undertaken and then differences were found between interviewee groups with blind and visually impaired participants generally carrying out the proposed tasks. The survey result showed various degrees and extents of the map literacy of the interviewee who had previous geographical education. This paper also discusses the topics of guidelines and standards for tactile maps and diagrams, which were used in the process of tactile map production and practices for usability at special schools in Korea. In the interview, most of the interviewees pointed the difficulty of complicated seashore lines and preferred simple seashore lines rather than precisely drawn lines for the Rias coast areas. Simplified line representation was recommended to the tactile map production, which was also applied to the Rias coast line. The line generalization was processed with feedback from some blind people who are experts of tactile mapping. The process was divided into six steps, with each step using a computerized method. From the touch-test, most of the blind people reported that a simple representation of coast line makes it easier to discern the national boundary than a precisely represented coast line. From the discussion stated above, we can conclude that the practice and the usability of the tactile maps would be mainly used for exploring various extents and levels of tactile maps and layout design standardization in Korea.
Keywords
Tactile map; Usability test; Standardization of tactile map