The Architect's Drawing Board

Technical Bulletin

Vandal Resistant Braille

The new ANSI requirements call for specific shape and dimensions of braille dots. These requirements call for a "domed or rounded shape" to the braille dots. For more information regarding the ANSI requirements, please see our Technical Bulletin.

For environment such as school systems, which are prone to vandalism, we backfill the embossed braille with a hardening compound to produce a solid braille dot. This solid braille dot prevents the braille from being depressed by vandals.

There are other methods of producing braille with "domed or rounded shapes", such as molding and raster braille (raster braille is sometimes refered to as bead braille), but both have limitations.

Molding is used for producing thousands of signs that are exactly alike, ie: restroom signs. Mold tooling is very expensive and therefore, it is not a valid choice for custom worded signs.

Raster braille is produced by drilling tiny holes into the sign face and then either friction fitting or gluing the braille beads into the drilled holes. There are concerns that the braille beads can either fall from the sign if the hole is too big or if vandals pick at the beads.

Embossed braille, which we use, is an integral part of the signs face and can not be picked off by vandals or affected by the environment.

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