Comics for blind people

“I took a course about comics to find out if it's possible to create a short comic that is readable for people without eyesight. The reader should be able to follow and explore the story through touching the paper. I wanted to make a medium accessible to more people”.

'Life' is a tactile comic for blind people. The comic doesn't translate the images into sound-information, as is done with most audio-book versions of comics, but does real sequential graphic storytelling. Images are placed next to each other and the reader connects the images to form a narration. In this case the story can be read with the fingertips.

"I have used simple shapes to tell a story in 24 panels. The comic itself doesn't rely on text and can therefore be read by visually impaired and sighted readers," Philipp explained.

Philipp got a project contract by the company Nota, in Copenhagen, where he learned from discussions with blind people about what they could imagine to read as pictorial sequences, and what would not be of interest to them. A difficult task as they had to imagine a medium, which was not developed, which they had not read, yet.

"He developed a story that doesn't use words, only images. It is aesthetically pleasing in its graphical reduction and abstraction, which works not only for blind people. Philipp Meyer has discovered a new genre of graphic literature. It is that simple, and that impressive," said Jakob Dittmar, lecturer in media studies at K3.

Although Meyer is careful to point out that his project is only an experiment and although there may be some limitations involved in telling a story only through circles, Life has some definite possibilities for further exploration.

More info: http://www.hallo.pm/life/

Adapted from: http://bit.ly/2xE9zv1