BRAILLE & SYMBOL SIGNS Thanks for your proofs; but now can you make


the signs tactile and Braille...? ....let’s be honest; this is a question that most signage companies dread


You’ve already invested a lot of time with your customer agreeing the colours, the text and overall design for their signs and then the requirements of the D.D.A / Equalities Act 2010 can often be thrown into the mix at the eleventh hour, so what do you do? Well most people contact a specialist D.D.A signage company like Architectural Symbols & Signs for help.


Text, Braille and symbol signage from Architectural Symbols & Signs.


Architectural Symbols & Signs has worked closely with organisations like Mencap (providing Widgit and Tactile & Braille signage at Lufton College in Somerset); and Shelter - the homeless and housing charity. Trade customers make up about 50% of the company’s


business and they have helped to provide signage solutions for all types of buildings and customers. Notable examples include aftermarket 100% transparent Braille strips on ATMs for Santander; internal tactile and Braille signage for Gloucester Quays shopping centre and tactile signage for the Supreme Court in London. Architectural Symbols & Signs also exports its signs to trade suppliers in Ireland, Australia, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, USA and even for a small job in a hotel in Africa c/o an Italian architect. Colin Bruton (Director from Architectural Symbols & Signs)


Coin Bruton (standing), Director at Architectural Symbols & Signs; with Paul Sutton, Transcription Officer, and Amanda Humphreys, Chief Executive, from the Walsall Society for the blind, discussing different formats of language, including Braille.


Architectural Symbols & Signs is a preferred signage supplier


to the RNIB. The company supplies both end clients and the trade with accessible way finding signage and most importantly the team at Architectural Symbols & Signs offers sound advice. They have been trading since 2003, both manufacturing the signs and also performing D.D.A signage audits for those customers who need some help deciding what signage they need. Customers include Her Majesty’s Court Service (HMCS); after


being specified as the preferred supplier by ATKINS, which manages the properties on behalf of HMCS. Architectural Symbols & Signs offers a full service to HMCS / Atkins – performing the initial signage audit often with the Court Manager, agreeing specifications and locations, etc. They then manufacture the signs and deliver them to site and supervise installation, which is performed by an external contracting company that has tendered for the work. The formula works for all involved and has resulted in excess of 30 Crown / County and Magistrates Courts being signed over the last five years. Other end client projects have included signing council admin-


istration buildings, leisure centres, theatres (such as the Theatre of Light at Andover); nature reserves; several Housing Associations (Gloucester City Homes, High Peak Housing and Severn Vale Housing).


explains some of the different terminology that is used and the main principles to consider when designing and installing this type of signage; especially when the architect/designer mentions that you as the sign maker is responsible for ensuring the signs are D.D.A compliant (which is a very ambiguous statement):


Tactile


This normally means raised letters. The idea is that people can feel and read the text with the pad of the finger and the letters should be raised and not recessed; so conventional engraving isn’t suitable. The minimum capital height of a tactile letter is 18mm, any smaller and they can’t be read by the finger so would be pointless being tactile. Extra spacing between letters makes the signs easier to read.


Braille


A form of communication that is read with the fingers, each cell of Braille can have up to six raised dots. Letters/words/numbers are made up depending where the dots are located within each cell. Text can be transcribed into Grade 1 (each letter of the word is repre- sented by a complete cell); or Grade 2 Braille (where contractions of words are used to shorten the message). Braille is a very bulky form of communication; if you had one A4 page full of ordinary text, this might transcribe into 2.5 pages of Braille. A lot of signage companies bought machines to produce Braille,


using acrylic balls that must be glued into place. After seeing various examples of this type of signage we discover that quite often the Braille is transcribed incorrectly because standard software like


24 Sign Update ISSUE 126 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2011


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