Maps for the Blind as Spaces of Encounter
Maps for the Blind as Spaces of Encounter

Summary/Abstract: This article explores tactile maps, that is spatial representations involving the development of raised versions of standard print maps, as spaces of encounter for blind activists during the Cold War. The Russian Union of the Blind had developed an interest in these items since the 1920s. In the post-Stalinist context of socialist internationalism, it often sent them as gifts to the blind organizations of other socialist countries. However, it was especially in the 1970s–1980s that tactile maps moved to the center of both Eastern and Western blind activists’ international collaboration efforts. By analyzing activists’ debates over the production of standardized tactile maps, the article discusses these items’ potentials and limitations for catalyzing intra-socialist and trans-systemic encounters, overcoming national and ideological competition, and facilitating the circulation of disability knowledge across Cold War Europe.

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