3D printing to teach blind people

Layla, who was born blind, says that her hands act as her eye's so her father bought a Robo 3D printer to help her better understand things and learn.

She is currently in the eighth grade, and was facing tremendous difficulties due to her blindness. Education is completely geared towards sight and while plenty of braille alternatives have fortunately been made already, lots of basic concepts in math, for instance, are very difficult to grasp when blind.

As no simple teaching alternatives for the blind existed, Jason just decided to make one himself. "I started 3D printing pieces of pie and take them down to her and explain that this is a third and this is a sixth. Because in her mind, she thought that a sixth was bigger than a third because the number is bigger" Jason says. Helping his daughter feel and experience objects, just as you would draw a pizza for other struggling children, really helped. "I see with my hands so some ideas are hard, fractions are cool. And then geography was easier once I could feel the earth" Layla said of these objects. "In her hand she can feel the difference in size and she's like 'Oh I get it'", said her dad.

"Layla’s predominant sense that she uses to see and learn the world is touch" mother Dori explains, so the parents set out to 3D print objects for their daughter. As Layla liked busses at the time, Jason first 3D printed a bus on his ROBO 3D printer to enable her to understand the concept of turning thoughts into objects. "I thought my dad bought it at the store. I asked for a bus and then a few hours later I could touch it" Layla said about that first print.

Adapted from: http://bit.ly/1GTMVQb

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aS7MCeKiDMc