Braille mapping
1860 to 1880: Braille technology reaches Australia
The 1874 Annual Report for the Royal Victorian Institute for the Blind (now known as Vision Australia) was the first recorded description of the use of Braille in Australia. A narrative by a teacher was recorded as follows: Sourced from Michele Prentice, Vision Australia
...Braille's system for instructing the blind has recently been introduced to the school by the head teacher. This system is now extensively used in the schools for the blind throughout Europe and America. It consists of six dots, which represent letters and words according to the position in which they are placed...
Additional apparata employed in connection with this system have been ordered from England; also, an embossed globe and other school requisites. When these have been received, the teachers will be in a position to carry on the work of tuition in all its branches more rapidly and effectively than hitherto.unknown teacher
1901 to 1920: Three dimensional tactual globe
In Victoria, a tactual globe of the world was produced around 1910-1920, but was mislocated for some years. It was later found and put to use by the then Royal Victorian Institute for the Blind (now Vision Australia).
The image portrays a similar globe being used around 1940.
New South Wales had a limited range of maps available that covered parts of the inner city of Sydney.
Photograph courtesy of Vision Australia
1951 to 1985: A crude map of Australia
In the 1960s, Mr R.F. Tunley compiled a crude but amazing small map of Australia. The map was a carved shape of Australia, labelled with aluminium tabs, produced on a 'Crab Braille Machine'. It was a double sided map, framed and originally produced for the children at Narbethong, a school in the locality of Buranda in Brisbane, Queensland.
The need for low vision mapping realised
Tactual mapping in Australia and particularly in Queensland is relatively new. The visually impaired have only recognised the need for tactile and low vision maps in the last 20-30 years.
Tactual mapping gives the visually impaired the opportunity to access knowledge, taken for granted by the rest of us.
In 1988, low vision maps were produced by the Department of Mapping and Surveying over QEII stadium. This stadium was a major athletics venue for the Commonwealth Games.
Maps of Australia and Australasia were also produced by the Royal National Institute for the Blind, London in the 1970s and 80s. Vision Australia 2004
The Queensland Tactual Mapping Committee was formed in 1985.
1986 to the Present: Innovative maps for measuring
In 1997, an ancient technique for reading distances on maps was used to produce a new concept of tactual mapping. The product was called 'Measure-It Maps' and was used to measure distances between towns.
The maps were printed on puffpaper which had holes cut out at town locations. These locations were named in Braille. A piece of string was used, having beads at exact intervals along its length. The distance between beads was determined by the map scale. A bead was inserted into a town hole and the distance measured along the string to another appropriate town was noted.Ghobrial J 1997
Facilitating the vision impaired
Since 1985, the Department of Environment and Resources Management has produced Tactual Maps for the visually impaired people of Queensland. The production of tactual maps is part of the Queensland Government's commitment to the needs of the community.
Over that period of time, the department has produced over 60 different map titles in conjunction with the Queensland Tactual Mapping Committee.
In July 2004, State bodies of the Royal Victorian Institute for the Blind, the Royal Blind Society of NSW, Vision Australia Foundation and the Royal Blind Foundation of Queensland merged to become an overarching body called Vision Australia.
Tactual map makers rarely make tactual versions of existing visual maps. Therefore a system of simplified and generalised maps with particular attention to line size, symbols, patterns and braille placement was developed.
A national specification for tactual and low vision maps has also been developed. Maps are usually printed with a low vision version on one side and a braille raised image on the reverse.
Raised image braille map
Last updated: 16 June 2009