Braille & Tactile Signage in Dubai
Sun Studio produces braille and tactile signage at our Al Quoz studio in Dubai, for signage companies, contractors and building owners across the UAE. Braille signs let people of determination who are blind or have low vision read a door, a lift or a route by touch. 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 accessible signage a project specification calls for: room and door signs, lift and stair identification, WC and accessible facilities, floor identification, wayfinding and statutory safety signage. Many suppliers here quote the US ADA standard. The local reference for a Dubai project is the Dubai Universal Design Code, and our article on braille and wayfinding signage requirements in Dubai explains what it asks.
What we produce
Braille and tactile signs are a category with real requirements behind them, 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 tactile floor markers for stairwells where the specification calls for them.
- 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. Signs with no tactile element are covered under signage printing.
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. For the layer-by-layer method, read how raised UV printing builds tactile lettering and braille.
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 Arabic and English where bilingual, and the braille grade if the specification names one.
- 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.
- Fixing and mounting method, and the location.
- Programme dates.
Not sure which file to send? Our artwork preparation guide covers file formats, vector conversion and what each surface needs.
How it works
The specification, the sign schedule and the wording.
We check the schedule against the specification and confirm build heights, contrast and substrate.
One sign is produced and checked against the specification before the schedule runs.
The full set is produced as one batch and packed by sign type.
Braille and tactile signage we have produced
Sun Studio work, produced in Al Quoz. For a full job, see the wayfinding and tactile signage for the Museum of the Future, printed in Arabic and English with a raised tactile finish.
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
Build height and consistency
Contrast
Durability of the tactile element
Substrate
Arabic braille and Arabic type
Approvals stay with you
Common questions
What do you need from us to quote braille signs?
Is there a minimum order for braille signs?
What dot height do you produce?
Can you produce braille signs in Arabic and English?
What materials can the signs be made from?
Do you handle approvals with the authority?
Can you replace or add braille signs in an existing building?
Do you produce a sample sign first?
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.
Sun Studio belongs to the same Dubai group as PRO TECHnology, which distributes Direct Color Systems equipment in the Middle East, so read our view of the machine with that in mind.