The TactiPad is a versatile drawing board which enables a VIP (Visually Impaired Person) to make a tactile drawing themselves or on which someone else can make a drawing for the VIP. These drawings are made on a thin sheet of plastic foil on top of a layer of rubber. By lightly pressing down on the foil the lines will raise instantly, forming the tactile image. The ergonomic design of the TactiPad and its included drawing tools makes drawing easier and much more enjoyable.
The TactiPad is a versatile drawing board which enables a VIP (Visually Impaired Person) to make a tactile drawing themselves or on which someone else can make a drawing for the VIP. These drawings are made on a thin sheet of plastic foil on top of a layer of rubber. By lightly pressing down on the foil the lines will raise instantly, forming the tactile image. The ergonomic design of the TactiPad and its included drawing tools makes drawing easier and much more enjoyable.
The art of drawing tactually – drawing tactile art
The TactiPad has many applications: it is the ideal drawing board for leisure activities, for schoolwork or in your professional career. It can even be used on the go or while travelling.
You can choose whether you want to make a simple sketch by hand, or use the different drawing tools – ruler, triangle, protractor and compasses – for highly accurate drawings. Eight adjustable buttons and measurement indicators around the drawing surface allow you to accurately fix the tools while drawing.
A selection of the possibilities
- Means of communication between VIPs and sighted people
- Drawing for fun and exploration
- Keeping track of the scores in a game
- Using it as a memo board mounted on the wall
- Doing your homework (e.g. maths or geography)
- Making greeting cards or other creative expressions
- Creating pie charts and other diagrams
- Carrying it with the shoulder strap to navigate your surroundings with a tactile map, or while creating your own map
Add functionality with GraphGrid and CircleFrame!
Besides the regular drawing tools, we offer two additional accessories and their accompanying drawing tools to extend the drawing possibilities on the TactiPad even more.
The GraphGrid is the tactile equivalent of grid paper. It uses rubber bands to provide a grid to your drawing surface. Use it, for example, to create tables, for drawings with repetitive patterns or for graphs and other mathematical drawings.
The CircleFrame can be used to create all kinds of circular drawings with great accuracy. With the drawing tools, you can easily create images such as pie charts, the face of a clock or interesting circular patterns and motifs like mandalas.
GraphGrid – draw graphs, tables, bar charts and other grid-based diagrams
CircleFrame – create pie charts, a clock, mandalas and other circular drawings
Important: these videos show a previous version of the TactiPad. The appearance of some components has changed in newer versions of the drawing board, yet the functionality is still the same.
Introduction
This first section gives a general description of the TactiPad drawing board and shows an overview of the different components that will be shown in the rest of the videos. They will contain more details about the use and dimensions of the drawing board itself, as well as the different drawing tools (i.e. the ruler, triangle, compasses and protractor).
