The Prague Post Online: News: Maps for blind part of city plan

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July 5th, 2008

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Maps for blind part of city plan

Wheelchair routes are also in the works

By Curtis M. Wong
For The Prague Post
September 26th, 2007 issue

New maps for the visually impaired are part of an ongoing effort to make the city more manageable for handicapped travelers.

In the latest effort, Prague officials have introduced a series of specially embossed maps with Braille text. Covering the entirety of the historical center, the maps are being produced as a joint effort between City Hall and blind citizens’ groups and will be available in libraries, schools and tourist information centers.

Officials hope to place embossed models of the maps in some of the city’s main squares and crossroads so that they are immediately available for blind travelers in the future.

The first map, which divides the city into administrative districts, was released in August, and officials expect the rest to be completed by the end of the year.

“The purpose of these maps is to help blind people understand the layout of a certain area … which can prepare them for independent walks across the city,” says Radka Fuxová, the maps’ author. “Usually, the oral description of a given area is not sufficient.”

The production of the maps is a joint effort between City Hall, Czech Blind United and the K.E. Macan Library and Printing Office for the Blind.

Each of the maps is printed on specially pressed thin plastic that contains various three-dimensional points and lines, which indicate streets, historical monuments, metro lines and orientation points.

To accommodate international travelers, the Braille key is printed in both Czech and English.

“The new blind maps are a great promotion of the city,” says Milan Pešák, city councilor for health care, in a prepared statement. “Prague is among a few cities that have [blind maps] similar to this one.”

Thirteen other blind maps are currently in preparation and are to cover Prague Castle, Wenceslas Square, Old Town Square, the Royal Route and the Hlavní nádraží area in greater detail.

“Based on the fact that Prague is a very attractive tourist destination, blind tourists and travelers are visiting here as well,” Fuxová says. “From time to time, foreign delegations of blind citizens visit Prague from London, Dresden, Latvia and elsewhere and will focus on how the Czech Republic is dealing with breaking down these barriers for tourists.”

Once organizers allocated appropriate state funding for the project, Fuxová prepared the map’s data digitally after extensively researching the various city areas.

After the map had been printed, officials conducted a series of trial sessions with blind citizens to ensure that it was in working order.

Now based in Norway, Fuxová first became involved in geo-cartography while studying at university in Brno, south Moravia. She had previously prepared similar maps for Brno and Opava, but the Prague project is by far the largest, she says. She hopes to prepare maps for other cities in the Czech Republic.

The maps are part of a wider effort to make the city friendlier to travelers with disabilities. A different series of maps that will include four wheelchair-accessible city routes and a key in eight languages is currently in preparation.

— Hela Balínová and Naďa Černá contributed to this report.

Curtis M. Wong can be reached at

news@praguepost.com

Curtis M. Wong can be reached at news@praguepost.com

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