Influence of Tactile Symbol Edge Clarity on Their Discriminability

Abstract

Recently, many tactile guide maps have been installed at various public facilities with the enactment of “Barrier Free New Law”. In tactile guide maps, some tactile symbols have been used for indicating some information items. Japanese Standards Association enacted Standardized Method of Displaying Tactile Guide Maps March 2007 (JIS T0922). Tactile symbols shapes are regulated by the JIS. However, other components of tactile symbol (such as edge, size etc) are unregulated because there are no sufficient research achievements regarding tactile symbols. In this study, for the purpose of investigating influence of tactile symbols edge clarity on their tactile symbols, we compared tactile symbols discriminability in two conditions with tactile symbol edge clarities (acute type (cutting method) and gentle type (screen printing method)). We made tactile symbol test pieces with various sizes by the two methods. And twelve older participants and twelve younger participants were asked to discriminate tactile symbol test pieces. From this study, we found the relation between tactile symbols edge clarity and discriminability of tactile symbols. It was also found that tactile symbols edge clarity influence on their discriminability when the size was particularly small.