The Pixel Art Slate is an experimental tool for creating tactile graphics that can be used by both Blind and sighted people. Inspired by the graphical medium of pixel art, it is a compact 3D printable frame that fits a standard 3x5 index card.

A typical braille slate enables a Blind user to write braille and provides guides for properly spaced characters. This design is simple, portable, and had endured for 200 years. However, it doesn't allow you to create continuous lines of dots because of the blank spaces in between character positions. The Pixel Art Slate extends this basic design; it has the familiar "open" six dot cell positions, but also has a column of single dots that can be embossed between each braille cell. This means you can create unbroken shapes and filled areas of different sizes in addition to braille.

The Pixel Art Slate also has features to help you lay out your drawings and keep track of your location. There is a circular raised bump at the "intersection" of each braille cell position (that is, the dot that is in between both a row of braille and a column of braille). There is a raised ridge between every 2 braille lines, just like a standard slate. And there is a set of 3D printable markers. These markers are small tactile elements with pegs that can be temporarily inserted into the holes of the slate to mark out positions. There are long bar-shaped markers for creating lines and marking out space, and smaller arrow and L-shaped markers. Of course, you can always pull out your drawing-in-progress from the slate to check it and the markers will remain in place.

The slate was designed in OpenSCAD, making it easy to tweak it or create a larger version. See https://github.com/tdeck/tactile-graphics-slate