Workshop at Blista

 On 5. February 2025, University of Lund and Siemens went to the Blista school for the blind in Marburg to do a round of workshops. The goal was to show and discuss two prototypes and get open feedback about the ideas, concepts, user interactions and any wishes from the participants.

Dr. Thomas Mahnke from Blista was so kind again to organize the participants and location, and in total 8 students from middle and upper high school took the challenge.

We demonstrated an iPad prototype developed by the partners from University of Lund, which in short offers the possibility to paint an image in the app and fill certain areas with spoken feedback. Afterwards the image is printed in braille and put on top of the iPad, and when touching the different areas, one receives the provided audio information.

For the tactile part of the ABILITY project, we facilitated a DotPad© to show various images and patterns to receive valuable ideas to consider for our further developments.

In general, it was a very successful day for the project team with many new ideas to discuss and insert in the upcoming steps.

At the end we had decided to do some fun activities and let the students paint in the DotPad© iPad app and feel right away what they have painted. Surprisingly, this originally planned fun activity resulted in some additional, unthought input.

The ABILITY project team appreciates the support from Dr. Mahnke, the participants and the Blista for their continued support and hospitality!