Braille & Sensory Trails - International
NATURE FOR ALL
Braille Nature Trails aim to help visually impaired people experience the trail without assistance using directional Braille signs and physical aids like guide ropes. Some tracks have touch-sensitive sides to enable the person to orientate themselves while others incorporate guided audio tours or smartphone access. Many paths are also wheelchair-friendly.
The first Braille Nature Trail near Aspen, Colorado was designed by a science teacher named Bob Lewis with a keen interest in nature. After reading about the inventor of the Braille alphabet, Louis Braille, he designed a nature trail with informational Braille signs to help people who were visually impaired get closer to nature. Thus the “Braille Nature Trail” concept was born, and was soon duplicated elsewhere.
Sensory Nature Trails and sensory gardens use specific aromatic, tactile and other plants in a specially designed layout, to enable people who are visually impaired or have other disabilities to feel, hear and smell their surroundings. Many gardens have Braille signs for information and/or audio features, guide ropes/rails, raised garden beds, and tactile pathways. Many sensory gardens are also wheelchair accessible.
The first Sensory Garden was created by Daniel Manning, at Belmont Park in Exeter, England in 1939, after seeing a blind woman touching and smelling a plant. Sensory gardens are now found in Botanical Gardens and other public parks and green spaces all over the world.