Blindness · Catherine Moore

Exploring hybrid publishing and a non-linear reading experience, we were tasked with finding open-source materials to use in designing a digital and print experience.

This project is a comment on accessibility for individuals with visual impairments. Working with a portion of the book Blindness by José Saramago, the reading experience slowly degrades from a ‘normal’ typesetting to what a blind individual would need to interact with the material. In the print version, the text slowly degrades into braille over the course of approximately sixty pages. The digital version also degrades, but instead of braille the text is invisible and an audio file plays the missing words. 

In order to typeset the braille correctly, I spent a lot of time reading articles and manuals, and conducted research to find the right paper and binding method for braille novels. Based on those findings, I used 160gsm paper (which is within the range of weights used for braille books) and coil binding. That thickness of paper allowed for the hand-debossing of the braille, which recreates the effect of a mass-produced braille novel.