As a means of making art more inclusive and available to everyone, this city has just installed tactile plaques that allow blind people to “see” the many murals decorating the streets.
The plaques were recently installed throughout Chile’s capital city of Santiago. The installations feature raised reliefs of the street art, as well as braille descriptions of the work. A downloadable app that corresponds with the plaques even has audio descriptions of the artworks.
The miniature artworks will benefit the 2.8 million Chileans who have been diagnosed with some sort of visual impairment, which is about 16.7% of the population.
Though braille and tactile touch panels are often featured in museums, this is the first time that such measures have been taken with street art.
The “Manos a la pared” (“Hands to the Wall”) project plaques can be found throughout Barrio Lastarria, which is one of the city’s most touristy neighborhoods.
“The initiative was born from the union of three restless women who met in the Diploma of Cultural Management of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile,” says Paula Cancino, president of the Association for Inclusive Culture, according to We Urbanist. “This project was conceived under the premise of breaking [down] the barriers that impede access to arts and cultures.”
Source:GNN
