TDraw: a computer-based tactile drawing tool for blind people

Considerations about blind people?s relation to pictures of real world objects lead to the conclusion that blind and sighted people have very similar mental models of the 3D world. Because perception works completely differently, the mapping of the 3D world to a 2D picture differs significantly. A tool has been developed to allow blind people to draw pictures and at the same time study their drawing process. A first evaluation shows interesting results. These will eventually lead to a design of a rendering tool for (tactile) pictures for blind people.