Although this crafty map of the MBTA rapid transit system is very obviously home-made, it has some clever ideas for helping visually impaired riders. Each route line is constructed with different materials, each with their own texture, which enables quick identification of lines by touch. Stations are marked with beads, and there are Braille labels as well, although the placement of some of them could be better.

The photo was taken at a disabilities conference in Norwood, MA: the original poster on Flickr doesn’t recall who made it, but would love to find out to credit the creator appropriately.

UPDATE: I got the following message in my inbox this evening:

Hi! I’m a travel trainer for Ways2Go Travel Training. We serve seniors and persons with disabilities throughout the MBTA bus and subway service area. I created the MBTA tactile map using the shower curtain map as a template. Thanks for sharing an image of it! – Linda G. Shepard Salzer

Mystery solved!

Source: muffet68/Flickr