How to Guide People in Architectural Spaces with Tactile Paving Surfaces?
Theoretically, architecture is a multisensory discipline involving textures, colors, shadows, sounds, and aromas. However, in practice, using visual language is often prioritized to explore it, limiting mainly to sight for identifying architectural elements and navigating autonomously in built environments and urban contexts. Therefore, it is crucial to integrate tactile paving surfaces into architecture.
Blindness and vision impairment transcend being a condition or disability; they represent an alternative way of perceiving the environment around us. In this sense, touch becomes a language and a fundamental guide for interacting with architecture. According to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (Article 9), all individuals have an inherent right to access the physical environment on an equal basis with others.