Children’s books play a key role in child development and access to culture. Books with tactile illustrations are particularly useful for understanding history. Yet it is essential that the illustrations are understood by the reader. How does this affect blind children, whose way of representing the world is different from that of sighted people? They have difficulty identifying the objects depicted in traditional tactile illustrations that are produced with techniques such as raised lines, thermoforming or embossing. Researchers from the University of Geneva (UNIGE, Switzerland), working in partnership with Université Lumière Lyon 2 (France), have devised 3-D mini-scenarios that children can explore with two fingers, making it easier to identify an object. You can read all about the results of the research in the journal PLOS ONE.