Photos for the Blind ยท Building tactile photographs
What if you could ONLY experience a photo through touch?
The picture of someone you love. A dog you still miss. A place that feels like home. We’re building a way to turn photographs like these into raised, tactile prints that someone who is blind or has low vision can explore with their hands.
We’re building and testing the program now. We intend for tactile prints and standard shipping to remain free for blind and low-vision recipients, sustained by people, organizations, and corporate sponsors who support the mission.
The photograph is only the beginning
Some pictures are far too important to stay flat.
A photograph can carry a face, a place, a pet, or a moment that means far more than the paper or screen holding it. Our goal is to translate the essential shapes of that image into something a person can explore through touch.
Not every visual detail needs to survive the translation. The right details do.
What guides the work
Personal. Tactile. Free to the recipient.
Start with a meaningful photo
The subject should matter to the person receiving it: someone they love, an animal, a place, or another memory worth revisiting.
Design for the hands
We plan to simplify visual information into clear raised forms, contours, and surfaces that are useful to explore by touch.
Keep the experience free
Our long-term plan is for accepted tactile photographs and standard shipping to remain free to blind and low-vision recipients, continually supported by donors and sponsors.
From a picture to something tangible
Focus on the part you want to remember.
A photograph can be full of color, light, and little details. We plan to focus on the forms that make a subject recognizable by touch: a familiar silhouette, the shape of a face, the curve of a mountain ridge.
That takes judgment, design, and feedback from people who use tactile materials. We’re building that process into every prototype.
Building the process
First, we’re getting the prints right.
We’re designing and testing tactile examples, learning which shapes communicate clearly by touch, and building a reliable way to prepare and deliver them.
- Design and print the first prototypes.
- Refine clarity, durability, and handling through informed feedback.
- Build the materials, packaging, postage, and accessible request process.
The pilot is where we work out those details before requests open.
Our GoFundMe fundraiser is live
Help us make the first tactile photographs.
We’re raising an initial $7,500 to develop and test tactile photograph prototypes, with the plan to offer meaningful prints free of charge to blind and low-vision recipients.
Support will help fund design experiments, printing materials, feedback and accessibility testing, and the practical steps toward a reliable request and delivery process. Beyond launch, we plan to sustain the program through ongoing individual giving plus organizational and corporate sponsorships so recipients are never asked to pay for their tactile photographs.
Thinking of a photograph?
We plan to open free photo requests after the pilot is ready.
We’re building a safe, accessible way to request a print and share the photograph that matters to you.