Tactile Books – A Bridge Between Different Worlds
Today, tactile books are no longer a pedagogical experiment or something unusual. They are no longer a niche product but have become as common and familiar as books meant to be read with the eyes.
Types of Tactile Books
Tactile books differ in their purpose, the way they convey information, the language and writing system they use, their target audience, content, and form.
By Purpose
- Educational — introduce children or adults to the world of reading and teach subjects such as mathematics, geography, and others.
- Fiction — fairy tales, poetry, and prose where tactile elements help the reader “see” the story.
- Popular science — books about space, biology, architecture, or physics, such as 3D atlases or tactile encyclopedias.
- Art books — experimental editions in which tactility itself becomes part of the artistic concept.
By the Way Information Is Conveyed
- Relief illustrations — contour drawings, bas-reliefs.
- Material or textured inserts — fabric, fur, wood, metal — allowing the reader to feel the material.
- Three-dimensional or pop-up elements — models of buildings or objects.
- 3D printing — modern tactile atlases, models of planets, molecules, etc.
- Combined — several methods of information transmission are used in one book.
By Language and Writing System
- Braille — the universal standard.
- Large print — for people with low vision.
- Tactile pictograms or icons — when an image is “translated” into a set of simple tactile symbols.
By Target Audience
- For children — often fairy tales with fabric, rough, or soft elements.
- For teenagers and adults — more complex encyclopedias, maps, atlases, and fiction.
- Inclusive — books combining tactile elements with regular printed text and illustrations, making them accessible to both sighted and blind readers.
By Content and Form
- Tactile fairy tales — for example, The Three Little Pigs with textures of fur, wood, and brick.
- Tactile atlases and maps — geography, astronomy, anatomy.
- Tactile poetry collections — where relief highlights a metaphor.
- Tactile music books — with Braille notation or relief diagrams of instruments.
- Tactile comics and graphic novels — still a relatively new direction.
The art books mentioned above represent a separate field within tactile publishing. In such experimental editions, tactility is not merely a way of conveying information but an independent artistic language. Artists use fabric, wood, metal, 3D printing, and handcraft techniques to create unique tactile books in which touch plays the leading role.
These books are often released in limited editions or as contemporary art objects, combining the aesthetics of the artist’s book with inclusivity and sensory exploration of the world. Examples can be found in projects by European studios such as DieciOcchi and Louise Hunter, as well as in specialized publishers working at the intersection of art and accessibility.
The Geography of Tactile Books: Who and Where?
The production of tactile books is a growing ecosystem that brings together publishers, designers, engineers, scientists, teachers, parents, and children. What unites all these people is the desire to make the tactile book an everyday and practical tool for the education of blind children.
Both established and new tactile book publishing projects are emerging in different countries — the United States, Germany and Italy, Austria and the Czech Republic, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand. Each of these projects has something special — even unique — to offer.
Europe
In Europe, the main hub for tactile book publishing projects is Typhlo & Tactus (T&T). For over twenty years, its organizers have been holding a competition for authors and illustrators who create tactile books.
The T&T headquarters are located in Dijon, where a workshop turns prototypes into finished tactile books, later distributed to European libraries and schools.
The Typhlo & Tactus project was founded in France in the late 1990s and holds a biennial competition for both independent creators and publishers of tactile books for children with visual impairments.
Importantly, the jury evaluates entries not by their appearance or even artistic value but by their tactile expressiveness and usability — the quality of textures, ease of relief reading, and originality of information presentation.
In effect, T&T has established an international standard for what a high-quality tactile book for blind children should be.
France
In France, tactile books are published by the independent nonprofit publishing house Les Doigts Qui Rêvent, which produces its own projects as well as editions that have won the Typhlo & Tactus competition.
These books are published in small runs, and some are made entirely by hand, skillfully combining embossed images, Braille, and regular print. This makes them suitable for shared reading among children with different sensory experiences.
A hallmark of the French school of tactile publishing is its focus on cultural heritage and artistic expressiveness rather than on purely educational requirements.
Museums such as the Musée du Louvre, along with other French institutions, play a vital role by creating tactile adaptations of masterpieces of painting and sculpture.
French publishers and museums thus play a key role in developing visually and tactilely accessible editions.
Italy
In Italy, the design duo Valentina Lungo and Enrico Delmastro (the DieciOcchi project) create books meant to be read both with the eyes and with the fingers.
Italian cultural heritage often becomes an integral part of their tactile works. One example is A Day with the Archdukes — a tactile book about Miramare Castle and its parks — where the book’s physical structure mirrors what can be experienced in reality: the texture of garden paths, walls, and interior paintings. The book is equally natural to read by sight or touch.
Like other European countries, Italy actively participates in Typhlo & Tactus and has repeatedly received awards for creatively using traditional materials such as wood, fabric, cardboard, paper, felt, and similar textures in tactile books.
In addition to creating original tactile editions, the Fondazione LIA (Libri Italiani Accessibili) adapts conventional books into accessible formats that may include audio descriptions and/or tactile elements.
Smaller publishers, such as Zoolibri in Bologna, also produce tactile art albums that combine visual and tactile expression.
Scandinavia, Germany, and the Netherlands
In the Netherlands, Germany, and the Scandinavian countries — Sweden and Denmark — as well as in Central and Eastern Europe (the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary), several projects focus on tactile publishing.
In Germany, universities preserve the academic tradition by using their educational infrastructure to design tactile books. Engineering departments also contribute by developing innovative materials and tactile interfaces.
In Sweden and Denmark, several state-funded library programs include tactile book collections.
One of the most interesting examples comes from the Netherlands — the Voeljeleesboeken (“Books You Can Feel and Read”) program. These books are often simple in content and design, combining Braille with 3D elements. One of the program’s most active participants is Marion Brillemans, a former teacher at Visio Rotterdam School for children with visual impairments.
Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia
Another major European initiative is the Talking Tactile Books (TaTaBooks) project, supported by the European Erasmus+ educational program. This project unites specialists from Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia, who are developing a fundamentally new approach to tactile book publishing.
TaTaBooks is one of the few projects built not top-down but through direct dialogue among children, educators, and technical experts. This approach has led to the creation of tactile books featuring 3D-printed elements, built-in audio, and online materials. These are not merely books for the visually impaired but truly universal educational resources that engage all children alike.
United States
There are so many initiatives in the United States devoted to tactile books that describing them all would take more than one volume. Here, we will focus on one bright yet typical example — a project that brings together Colorado’s universities, centers for the blind and visually impaired, libraries, schools, and so-called MakerSpaces.
The Tactile Picture Books Project and Build a Better Book initiatives organize workshops where teenagers — not only those with visual impairments — learn to create their own multisensory books: designing layouts, preparing them for printing, producing them on 3D printers, and adding sound or online features to the final editions.
In these projects, the book becomes not merely an educational tool but also an instrument of creativity, engineering thinking, and inclusivity. Most importantly, this process transforms the very idea of what we call the “norm” of reading.
Japan
In Japan, tactile books are both an art form and an educational tool. The development of tactile book production began in the 1980s and quickly moved beyond a purely utilitarian approach.
A key driving force behind this progress was the volunteer movement: participants began creating handmade books, often as single copies, and gradually transitioned to small-scale and later larger-scale production.
In addition, Japan has a long-standing tradition of tactile book clubs organized in schools and municipalities. Members of such clubs regularly meet in libraries and classrooms to collaboratively produce tactile books. Most of these books are not published commercially, but thanks to municipal and organizational support, they become available through specialized tactile book funds.
It is worth noting that in Japanese schools for children with visual impairments, tactile books are not considered auxiliary tools.
Within Japan’s education system, they are fully integrated into curricula for reading, natural sciences, history, and art. For example, when studying nature, students work with relief images of animals, plants, and weather phenomena; in history classes, they use tactile maps and embossed scenes from the past. This approach fosters spatial thinking, imagination, and the ability to engage with abstract concepts.
As in France, Japanese museums and libraries actively use tactile books in their educational and cultural programs. Some art museums have special areas where visitors can experience works through tactile adaptations of exhibits. Just like in education, tactile elements in Japanese museums serve as a full-fledged medium of artistic perception.
Libraries support a national tactile book lending system: even rare copies can be ordered from another prefecture just as easily as a regular book.
South Korea
In South Korea, the production and distribution of tactile books are largely supported and coordinated by the state, with a strong focus on digital integration. The development of tactile publishing began in the 1990s as part of the country’s national policy of inclusion across all areas of social life.
The key role in publishing and disseminating tactile books belongs to centralized state institutions. Specialized public publishers produce tactile books and other educational materials for schools throughout the country — from basic embossed alphabets to complex scientific manuals. After production, these state publishers distribute the books to libraries and schools. As in Japan, tactile books in South Korea are an integral part of the school curriculum.
A particular emphasis is placed on technology. South Korea actively uses 3D printing and high-precision embossing printers to reproduce tactile images. This allows the creation of consistent, standardized sets for educational institutions, ensuring both quality and accessibility.
In recent years, the creative sector has joined the national system: designers and artists now participate in international competitions for artistic tactile books and multimedia materials. Thus, the rigid centralized structure is gradually being complemented by creative initiatives, making the Korean model both flexible and resilient.
Australia and New Zealand
In Australia and New Zealand, the development of tactile books began within local communities, state and municipal libraries, and universities — that is, from the bottom up.
Two organizations played a key role in this process: Vision Australia and the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind, along with research centers at universities. Today, a flexible network of projects unites educators, engineers, artists, and volunteers to create and publish tactile books across both countries.
A distinctive direction in this region is the creation of tactile books for Indigenous peoples.
In collaboration with Aboriginal and Māori communities, tactile books are published that retell traditional myths and legends, often incorporating elements of native languages in tactile form. These works serve not only as educational resources but also as tools for preserving Aboriginal and Māori cultural heritage.
The main focus is on inclusivity and shared use. Tactile books are created not only for specialized schools but also for mixed groups in kindergartens and elementary classes, helping to build a culture of accessibility from an early age. As in South Korea, technology plays a crucial role: laser cutting, thermal printing, and 3D modeling enable small teams to produce high-quality books in limited editions.
Museums and public libraries actively support these initiatives: tactile books become part of exhibitions and cultural programs, expanding audiences and creating new ways of interacting with text and art.
A special feature of tactile book publishing in Australia and New Zealand is the culture of charity and collective action — a legacy of both Indigenous traditions and the philanthropic experience inherited from the British Empire.
Tactile Books: Different Approaches, One Idea
The development of tactile books follows different paths in different countries — from volunteer-driven creativity (the Netherlands and Australia) to state-led strategies (Germany and South Korea), from handcrafted editions (Sweden and Denmark) to technological innovation (Japan and New Zealand).
These differences stem from each country’s history, cultural context, educational systems, and social priorities. Yet the goal remains the same everywhere: to make tactile books not a rarity, but a natural part of the educational and cultural environment.