Seeing that @CiscoNetAcad Innovative thinking from @RNC_official comes in small steps ...

Tactile network topology
Working with the Royal National College for the Blind is inspirational. Not because of the clever high tech super wiz tech. Instead, learning how to make good use of low tech resources that can be easily sourced by anyone.

Based on some 3D printer templates shared, the souls at RNCB had a dilemma. Cost, replication and could others currently afford this technology.

Instead, after a search, one of the Cisco team found magnetic felt and got to work with different cutting tools and some tactile paint.

The first version is crude; they need to do some work on the full symbols. The shapes are there and you could easily duplicate the kind of network diagrams seen in many of the Cisco practical and packet tracer labs. In fact we could easily share these with visually impaired students at the Open University.

Colour is meaningful, even to the visually impaired. Total blindness is apparently not as common as us sighted souls believe. Many with visual impairment may have some peripheral vision or colour sense at close quarters. Shape, colour, feel all make sense.

For a whole group, they are able to make these resources work for £10's of pennies, rather than the couple of thousand for a reasonable 3D printer.  I am learning how innovative thinking can come in small steps rather than large gestures.


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