No matter how well-designed tactile graphic materials are, they are of no value if potential users do not possess the skills necessary to interpret them. Whereas Phase One of the Reginald Phillips Research Programme focused on tactile graphic materials, Phase Two is now exploring the skills and knowledge involved in their use. We are addressing two substantial questions: 'What skills underlie tactile graphicacy?' and 'How can visually impaired people be assisted in developing these skills?'. We consider these questions in more detail below.

What skills underlie tactile graphicacy?

We are evolving a conceptual model of tactile graphicacy differentiating the factors involved in comprehension and setting out the skills a competent tactile graphics user should possess. A clearer specification of these skills and a better understanding of their acquisition should be of practical value to teachers, and is also necessary for the next stage of our research.

Our current model proposes that there are four aspects to tactile graphicacy:

1		perceptual processing the initial processing of touch sensations from the graphic
2		cognitive skills a broad spectrum including line tracking, identifying shapes (e.g. triangle, circle, square), identifying spatial relationships (e.g. 'next to', 'between', 'above'), simple mental rotation tasks and metacognitive skills
3		knowledge this includes both knowledge of subject matter (e.g. economics, biology, mathematics) and knowledge of graphic formats (e.g. bar charts, line graphs and flow charts)
4		cognitive development the cognitive maturity of the learner, which must be taken into account when introducing certain concepts

How can we help visually impaired children to develop tactile graphic reading skills?

When we have elaborated our conceptual model of tactile graphicacy sufficiently, we will explore the ideas suggested by our model for introducing children to tactile graphics in a more structured way than at present. This exploration will include devising and testing examples of learning modules which address some of the skills identified in the model. Our aim is to evaluate the feasibility of this more systematic approach, and to conclude Phase Two with a specification of the form a complete learning package might best take.

More details of our approach and model can found in our paper, "First steps towards a model of tactile graphicacy". See Our Publications for the abstract of this paper.