North Texas Daily

Student Government Association representatives, in an effort with the University Union, The Factory and the Office of Disability Accommodation, unveiled a campus braille map Wednesday for students who are visually impaired to find their way around the grounds.

The project was originally spearheaded by former SGA President Barrett Cole and finished out by the Kara administration. The map is located on the first-level of the Union.

“That specific location is going to best serve students,” current SGA president Muhammad Kara said in reference to the map’s installation location. “It has a lot of traffic going in and out of the Union itself. It is one of the main general locations on campus, especially when students are getting on and off the busses, they go [to the Union]. We wanted to make sure that our visually-impaired students had something for themselves to figure out where all locations were on campus.”

The braille map is a 3D-printed model of the UNT campus with miniature replicas of the many buildings. A legend accompanies the small-scale reproduction which lists out the building names for students who are visually-impaired to identify their desired route. 

Linguistics senior Ethan Ligon, who is visually impaired, said he already knows where most places are on campus. For people who may not be as familiar with the area, Ligon said the braille map could be a “huge help.”

“It took me a second to figure out where everything was supposed to be and how the number system works, but there’s a big key right next to it with all the different buildings,” Ligon said. “It made sense pretty quickly once I figured that out.”

Featured Image: The new braille map of UNT main campus was unveiled Wednesday in the University Union. The model is meant to assist students and faculty who are visually impaired. Ally Zarate