How visible is Braille in your city?
At Braille200, we are always delighted when we come across Braille signage in the wild.
However, how often this actually happens varies greatly from city to city.
Anja Pfaffenzeller and her students thoroughly investigated the question of how visible Braille is in the cityscape of Chemnitz. They recorded their findings in an impressive poster.
We at Braille200 are thrilled by this exciting idea and hope that it will inspire many others to follow suit!
Anja Pfaffenzeller will tell you all about it herself in a moment. She even sent us detailed image descriptions.
A big thank you goes to Anja Pfaffenzeller, Jack Frenzel, Lara Knopke, and of course the rest of the team, who not only researched this important topic, but also presented it in such an appealing way.
Braille in the European Capital of Culture
Chemnitz is the European Capital of Culture in 2025, and it is one of the capitals of blind people in Germany, as there’s a big school and training centre here. But what about Braille in public space? This was a question a group of visually impaired students and their blind teacher wanted to explore during a school project.
We went for a walk in the city centre and took photos of different places. Great examples for braille signs could be found at the station, in other places we can see the good will, but the implementation is not perfect yet. But there are also examples for a complete lack of Braille in public space.
The students rated the places and Jack and Lara created the Braille traffic light: Green, yellow and red.
QR codes with recorded photo descriptions will be added. We’ll find a place to display the poster in order to raise awareness on the importance of Braille in public space.
Description of the poster
Green:
Poster with 6 pictures, some text and a big thumbs up.
Pictures:
– Button which can be pressed to have information on bus timetables
Text: The audio information system at bus stops speaks the next arrivals aloud.
– Model of the Chemnitz city centre
Text: The model of the Chemnitz city centre with touchable streets and houses and braille labels is very blind friendly.
– Ice cream shop which has a braille menu
Text: The ice cream shop Cortina has a braille menu which allows blind people to explore all kinds of ice creams they have.
– 2 pictures of handrails with information in Braille and raised print
– tactile paving at the station
Text: At the train station there is a good guidance system for the blind. Tactile elements inform about crossings or important places, information in braille and raised print at handrails give directions and announcements at the platforms inform about trains.
Yellow
Poster with 4 pictures, some text and a central thumbs to the left, meaning neutral feeling.
Pictures
– Cultural centre DasTietz, the button at the lift.
Text: There is braille at the buttons of the lift, but no audio information on where the lift stops.
– Central bus station: Picture of a platform with audio information system
Text: The information system tells us which busses leave, but we have no way to find out on which platform we are.
– 2 Pictures of the station: One with raised print, no Braille, one with a big gap which cuts the word in the middle.
Text: A braille label is missing and another sign is cut in strange parts. The information on the exit to the bus stop does not describe the location of the stop.
Red
Poster with 3 pictures, some text and a thumbs down.
Pictures:
– A big shopping centre
Text: The shopping centre is very confusing and there’s no braille to indicate shops or the direction of escalators.
– Cultural centre dasTiez: Information board on location of library, museums, etc.
– Information on opening hours of the central library
Text: The central library has a tactile paving which sometimes end in the middle of nowhere. There are no braille books in the library.
useful links:
Read all articles on: livingbraille.eu
Contact us with your contributions, ideas and questions by: braille200@livingbraille.eu
Social media: Braille 200 on Facebook