MUSAC

Shapereader is a community-specific tactile conlang (constructed language). It was initially designed for the purposes of visually impaired subjects in regards to tactile textual production. It consists of an expanding repertoire of free-floating tactile ideograms (tactigrams) intended to provide haptic equivalents for all the semantic features, the conceptual functions and textual attributes of a story. Its design prioritizes simplicity and ease of memorization and addresses all users regardless of their nationality, language, educational level, or subsistence under any visual handicap. By circumventing the verbo-voco-visual apparatus, it transposes semantic and syntactical structure cognizance to the reader’s fingertips. Shapereader promotes an embodied textual experience. Shapereader has been presented internationally, with exhibitions, workshops and conferences. (Photo credits: Imagen MAS)