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The Runaway Bunny, by Margaret Wise Brown. The story talks about a mother’s unconditional love. The container measures 9 inches in diameter and 4 inches high.The container is covered with cloth; the side is covered with the story in Braille. |
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There is a story book for the parent to read to the child. It has no pictures and the story is abridged and with instructions (on how to use the toys) in smaller type. |
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The partitions in the container have page numbers (also in Braille). Each section corresponds to a page in the story book. |
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The fish (can be tied to the baby bunny) is textured with different colors and sizes of beads. The carrot fishing pole can be velcroed to the mother bunny. |
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The flowers are scented and one of them can be tied to the baby bunny. The water can has a rusty surface. |
This was a 4 week project. I was to pick an audience group, who the project is for, and to give myself a design topic. In this case, I wanted to design "something"for blind children. The first two weeks I devoted my time on researching and talking to professionals about visually-impaired children. Ideas and concepts also developed and changed during these weeks. Then, I asked my classmates to be blindfolded to test the box during class critique.
Research Notes
Visually impaired children lack play skills; and their language ability is related more to past experience and less to current activity.
These children enjoy toys with components, textures, and structures. They are also more self-contained or repetitive and less symbolic or imaginative.
It’s best when the storyteller knows the listener. Thus, in order to create a meaningful interaction, the best way is to have the parents tell the story to their visually-impaired children.
Interests and goal
After researching, I became interested in the “love” relationship between the parents and their visually-impaired child. The goal was to create a story container with different textures and components of toys for the parents to tell a story to their visually-impaired child. This will also help to develop the child's play skills.