ELIA — Education, Literacy, and Independence for All — uses technology to create tactile reading tools for those with visual impairment.
ELIA aims to become an alternative to traditional braille, which is only understood by 1% of the visually impaired. Its founder, Andrew Chepaitis approached Order to bring his new alphabet system to life.
The team designed and developed a roman alphabet counterpart to each ELIA Frame, to create a unified language for those both with and without visual impairment.
99% of individuals with visual impairment are unable to read and/or learn the complex braille system, which requires specialized machinery to produce printed materials like the punch plate show above.
ELIA is a system based on the roman alphabet that requires less time to both print and learn, and has a higher rate of retention for those with impairment after birth.
Printer
In addition the their alphabet, the ELIA team is creating a printer with the ability to produce raised-ink letterforms. A partnership with HP will enable this capability to exist for personal computing systems and at-home use.
Based on ELIA Frames, shown above, we devised a grid that reflected the fundamental geometric properties.
The result was a supporting typeface, ELIA Roman, designed to be paired with ELIA Frames at all times. This allows users without visual impairment to read alongside those who do.
ELIA Roman.
Ultimately, our team developed a typographic structure that allowed three alphabets — ELIA Frames, ELIA Roman, and braille — to be stacked as single, double, or triple unit. This extended the inclusivity to cover everyone, regardless of visual condition.
