Enhancing Accessible Pattern Design Practices among Blind Weavers

What is it about?

The Maker Movement has been praised as democratizing design among millions of hobbyists, artists, students, and tinkerers around the world, but where do stories of disabled makers fit in within the Maker Movement? We present the stories of blind and low-vision weavers who engage in a traditional manual form of making and produce handwoven fabrics with yarns and looms at a community weaving studio. We immersed ourselves within this community studio for over three years to investigate how blind weavers understand the process and and product of weaving using their non-visual senses. Based on our fieldwork, we built a system called Simphony which combines musical notes, spoken audio, and a tactile overlay to help the weavers perceive and generate new weave patterns.

Featured Image

Photo by ALAN DE LA CRUZ on Unsplash

Photo by ALAN DE LA CRUZ on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Findings from our design exploration sessions at the community studio reveal how blind weavers used the audio-tactile system to learn underlying mechanisms of weaving and generate new patterns. Our work highlights how technological augmentations into traditional forms of craft can scaffold accessible learning of complex procedures and how blind artists can combine different art forms (e.g., music and weaving) to foster creative expression.