Book Design for Children and Young People with Visual Impairments

What happens to a story when it becomes tactile? How can stories be told through touch?

Tactile Storytelling is a collaboration between the Department of Textile and the Institute of Language Arts. Over the course of one semester, students developed tactile books for children and young people with visual impairments who study at the Vienna Federal Institute for the Blind.

Working in small groups, each student created a book for a specific child or young person. The wishes, ideas, and experiences of the participants formed the starting point of the design process. Combining language, materials, and touch, the students explored new forms of storytelling grounded in tactile experience.

Every child, regardless of disability, has the right to equal access to education. Yet blind and visually impaired children still face a shortage of accessible books. Tactile and inclusive children's books remain rare, and many existing publications continue to rely primarily on visual modes of perception. This seminar seeks to address this gap by creating books that place tactile experience at their core—books that can be experienced and enjoyed by sighted and blind children alike. The resulting works invite readers to explore stories through multiple senses and imagine new possibilities for inclusive storytelling.

Participants: Kasia Baginska, Pauline Deml, Ines Frieda Försterling, Idil Selen Gökdemir, Liat Granierer, Nina Gstaltner, Celina Hacker, Hannah Lotti Hölbling, Sabine Krobath, Sonja Kuzmics, Franziska Richardsen, Natasha Stierli, Barbara Wendt

Supervised by Olga Grajsnowa & Ebba Fransén Waldhör. 
A cooperation with Federal Institute fot the Blind, Vienna.