4th January is World Braille day and time to reflect on the various places in Delhi that have traveled that extra mile to make the life of the blind and the visually-impaired easier by exhibiting features that would aid them.
Here’s a summary of such places and the features.
1. Braille Board at Safdurjung Tomb
The foremost is the monument information that is embossed in the Braille script at the Safdarjung Tomb in Delhi. Such information is normally painted on a huge board in large letters to ensure that it is visible from far also for the visually-impaired. This one in Safdarjung Tomb travels that extra mile to ensure that the blind too can read it.
2. Braille Menu at Chungwa Restaurant
This restaurant in Delhi has traveled that extra mile to ensure that the blind are not left out when it comes to dining out or are at the mercy of others when ordering food. The Braille menu ensures that they feel at ease and can lookup through the menu and order food just like everyone else at the hotel. Read the complete story.
3. Tactile Maps at Old Fort
The Old Fort complex in Delhi houses several palaces, gateways, medieval public baths, and museums and there are maps placed at every corner and turn to guide people with directions. These are special tactile maps that the blind can touch-sense and get to know the location of the various places around.
4. Braille Letters on Voice ATM Machines
Throughout Delhi and the NCR region that also includes Gurugram where I live currently, there are numerous ATM machines that are Voice-Enabled allowing the blind to carry out complete transactions like checking balance and withdrawing money using voice commands over a head-phone. The special feature of these ATMs is many of them have Braille numbers embossed on the buttons so that the Blind can easily access the same ATM machines as the general public and do no feel left out. Read the meetup recap here.
5. The Wall of Tactile Miniature Monuments
This is a special feature in the Lodi Road area of Delhi where besides murals painted on the walls there are also special walls that have tactile miniature monuments carved on them. The blind and the visually-impaired can touch-sense these tactile monuments at a smaller scale and easily come to know the shape of the actual full-scale monuments. Another intelligent feature is the texture of the material used in the miniature tactical monuments. Read the full story here…
6. Tactile Scientific Exhibits
The tactile scientific exhibits at the National Science Center in Delhi are specifically of those objects that are either too large or too small to handle in real life for the blind. These include a factory chimney, DNA strand, transmission towers, to name a few. Read the complete story here.
7. Braille Usage at Metro Train Stations
Finally, here’s an impressive perspective that can be seen at every metro station in Delhi where there are tactile paths leading to an accessible elevator that has buttons embossed with Braille letters and numbers to ease the movement of the blind to their destination hassle-free. Read Recap 1 and Recap 2 of the accessibility check meets of Delhi metro stations.
Conclusion
The tactile art walls, metro stations, monuments, museums, and such places highlight that Delhi on this day 4-January-2021 is all geared towards realizing the goal of Accessibility for All.
Regarding the use of Braille in public places, what is the story in your part of the world?
BR,
Tushar Suradkar
Delhi
