14 DAY TRIAL // It's hard to visualize something when you're blind, and just as hard (arguably) to actually explain the look of something to such a person if there was not a point in their lives when they weren't visually impaired.
Ultimately, touch is the only way they can actually build mental models of things. That only works for things within reach though, not cars or animals or, say, parts of the landscape.
So Yahoo Japan Corporation made a printer for the specific purpose of creating miniature models of such objects or living creatures, and even models of Mount Fuji.
The Yahoo 3D printer takes up to 1 hour to make a product. Monochrome extruder is used, though there are several colors available.
I can definitely see other schools picking up on the idea, maybe even picking up one of those really cheap Deltaprintrs.