- an innovation in tactile writing
iAlphabet
iAlphabet is an innovation in tactile writing. It is a novel writing system that the letters are designed to look like their mirror image to ease the tactile handwriting for Visually Impaired (VI) with no need for any writing aid.
iAlphabet is derived from the Latin/English alphabet and is very easy to learn. The VI, for the first time, can enjoy handwriting with an ordinary pen without any additional need for writing aids or gadgets. People with no visual impairment can also enjoy writing in all iAlphabets, tests showed they can learn it within an hour.
This new tactile writing system is created in 5 different alphabets:
1- iAlphabet, derived from Latin/English
2- FiAlphbet, from Farsi/Arabic
3- CiAlphabet, from Cyrillic
4- GiAlphabet, from Greek
5- CriAlphabet, from Croatian
Why looking like mirror image:
When imprinting the alphabet by hand, the tactile imprints on the back of the page are reversed, looking like their mirror image. It was thought by designing a new writing system, iAlphabet, to look like its mirror image, the problem of reverse reading could be solved as the raised imprints look just the same. The pictures below of iAlphabet model show the letters writing from right to left look exactly the same when read from left to right.
Writing iAlphabet from right to left
Reading iAlphabet from left to right
iAlphabet was created to make handwriting possible for the VI worldwide with no need for any expensive assistive writing technology, embossing gadgets, or mechanical aids. All that is needed include a piece of paper, a cut of cardboard to place under the paper and an old biro pen.
Writing pad, tactile lined paper and any old pen
Furthermore, iAlphabet due to some similarity to the alphabet can make handwriting possible for those who lose their sight later in life and find learning braille challenging.
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
Albert Einstein: “To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science.”