Braille & Tactile Signage in Dubai

Sun Studio produces braille and tactile signage at our Al Quoz studio. The braille dots and the raised characters are built up in layers of UV ink on the sign face itself, so the tactile element and the visual one are printed together rather than drilled, glued or applied separately.

It goes into the signage that UAE buildings are required to provide: room and door signs, lift and stair identification, WC and accessible facilities, floor identification, wayfinding and statutory safety signage.

What we produce

Tactile signage is a category with real requirements behind it, and these are the pieces we make:

• Braille — dots built in layers of ink to the height and spacing your specification calls for.
• Raised tactile characters — letters and numerals that stand proud of the face so they can be read by touch.
• Room and door signs — the most common item, usually name, number and braille together.
• Lift, stair and floor identification — including the tactile floor markers required in stairwells.
• Accessible facility signage — WC, accessible routes and areas of refuge.
• Statutory and safety signage — where a tactile element is called for in the specification.
• Full building schedules — produced as one consistent set.

Production capabilities

The point of building braille in ink is that everything is registered to everything else, in one process:

• Layered UV build — dots and characters formed by printing successive layers, then cured.
• Printed and tactile in register — the visual sign and the raised element are produced together, so nothing is glued on afterwards and nothing can misalign.
• Built to your specification — dot height, spacing and character height printed to the figures the project or authority requires.
• High-contrast colour — the visual sign printed with the contrast legibility depends on.
• Arabic and English together — bilingual signage with both scripts printed cleanly.
• A range of substrates — ACP, acrylic, aluminium and rigid board.
• Sample sign first — one sign produced and checked before a whole schedule runs.

Printed braille or applied braille beads

There are two common ways to get braille onto a sign in this region, and they age differently.

Applied beads

Individual plastic or metal beads are inserted into drilled holes, or glued to the face. It is a long-established method and it produces a consistent dot.

The weaknesses are practical: every bead is a separate part that can be knocked out or lost, drilling has to align with the printed artwork, and a sign that loses beads becomes wrong rather than merely worn.

Braille built in printed layers

The dots are formed by building up cured UV ink on the face, in the same pass as the graphic. There is nothing inserted and nothing glued, so there are no separate parts to come away.

It also means the tactile and visual elements are registered by definition — the braille cannot drift out of position relative to the printing, because they were produced together. The build height is set to the figures your specification requires.

Who this is for

Tactile signage is nearly always specified rather than chosen, so this reaches us from:

• Signage companies — delivering an accessible signage package.
• Fit-out contractors — where accessibility signage is a compliance item on the handover list.
• Developers and consultants — meeting the accessibility requirements of a project specification.
• Facilities and property managers — retrofitting or replacing signage in an existing building.
• Hotels, hospitals and clinics — where accessible wayfinding matters most day to day.
• Schools, universities and public buildings — full building schedules.

What to send before we can quote

Accessibility signage is specification-led, so send the specification along with the schedule:

• The specification the signage has to meet — the project accessibility spec or the authority requirement it is drawn from.
• The sign schedule — types, sizes and quantities.
• The wording for each sign, in both languages where bilingual.
• Required dot height and character height, if the specification states them.
• The substrate — ACP, acrylic, aluminium or board, and thickness.
• Contrast requirements, where the specification sets them.
• Mounting method and location.
• Programme dates.

How it works

Braille and tactile signage we have produced

Sun Studio work, produced in Al Quoz.

Technical considerations

Accessible signage is one of the few printing jobs with a right answer written down somewhere. The specification governs, and our job is to produce to it exactly rather than to interpret it.

What matters:

• The specification is the authority — dot height, dot spacing, cell spacing, character height and mounting height are set by the project or the relevant authority requirement. We build to the figures you supply and will not substitute our own.
• Build height and consistency — braille has to be felt, so the layered build is checked across the batch rather than on the first sign only.
• Contrast — most accessibility specifications set a contrast requirement between characters and background. That drives the colour choice, and often means white ink underneath.
• Durability of the tactile element — a raised element is touched constantly, which is a different kind of wear from a printed graphic that is only looked at.
• Substrate — the panel still has to hold the ink, so the material preparation for ACP, acrylic or aluminium applies here too.
• Arabic braille and Arabic type — bilingual signage needs both scripts and the tactile element planned together, not added afterwards.
• Approvals stay with you — we produce to the specification supplied. Obtaining authority approval or sign-off remains with the project team.

Common questions

Have an accessible signage schedule?

Send us the specification, the schedule and the wording. We will produce a sample sign to those figures, confirm it against the requirement, and then run the set as one consistent batch.

Braille & Tactile Signage projects

Real Sun Studio work involving this service. See the full portfolio.

Technology used

Direct Color Systems UV84 — the flatbed that builds raised braille and tactile characters in layered ink. See the full printer fleet.