When checking if a braille and tactile sign complies with the Building Code of Australia Clause & Specification D3.6, Disability Access to Premises Standard and Australian Standard AS1428.1 Design for access and mobility – General requirements for access – New building work, the following are the key items that need to be checked.
- Tactile characters must be raised or embossed to a height of not less than 1mm and not more than 1.5mm.
- Upper case tactile characters must have a height of not less than 15mm and not more than 55mm.
- Lower case tactile characters must have a height of 50% of the related upper case characters.
- Tactile characters, symbols, and the like, must have rounded edges.
- The entire sign, including any frame, must have all edges rounded (Not just corners).
- The surface of the sign must be continuous for hygiene purposes.
- Signs must be constructed so as to resist the removal of letters and braille dots by picking or adhesive failure.
- The background, negative space or fill of signs must be of matt or low sheen finish.
- The characters, symbols, logos and other features of signs must be matt or low sheen finish.
- The minimum letter spacing of tactile characters on signs must be 2mm.
- The minimum word spacing of tactile characters on signs must be 10mm.
- Fonts with letters of constant stroke thickness must be used.
- The thickness of letter strokes must be not less than 2 mm and not more than 7 mm.
- Tactile text must be left justified, except that single words may be centre justified.
- Braille must be raised and domed.
- Braille must be located 8 mm below the bottom line of text.
- On signs with multiple lines of text and characters, a semi-circular braille locator at the left margin must be horizontally aligned with the first line of braille text.
