Wednesday, November 26, 2003
I got your dots right here
I’d like to think we’re a “visually-impaired sensitive” household. Kel works full-time with the blind, and is going for a masters in the field. I used to do a little volunteer work at the Lighthouse, an organization that helps the blind. Plus, we got a copy of Spirit of the Century. (Which completely rocks. Someone swiped it from us. Gotta replace it. Great album.) Even I - I, myself - wear eyeglasses. So we’re a sensitive crew here at Greater Huttsville when it comes to ocuclar acuity. That’s why I feel comfortable making the following observation about braille.
Braille is an alphabet made of patterns of raised dots and is read through the sense of touch. The Lighthouse has its name (I assume) plastered across its stucco facade down at Civic Center in three-foot-wide braille dots. That wasn’t the first place I saw braille where it usually isn’t. I’ve grown used to seeing it on elevators, ATM machines, in museums - places where people often have to respond to visual cues. I’m usually happy to see braille anywhere it shows up. It’s an important tool for independence and mobility and I support its promulgation.
But on top of a building, as a sort of dentil frieze for the visually impaired? What a world!
And then I started noticing braille all sorts of strange places I’d not have expected it to appear. Places where, as far as I can tell, it’s not doing anybody any good. Or it’s been installed so that it’s effectively invisible to the blind, or in places a blind person just doesn’t need to look for instructions. Some of the stranger options I’ve enjoyed have included braille at drive-through windows (for the visually impaired motorists among us, and they are legion) and on the emergency exit instructions on a 777; I think my current favorite was a big painted wall sign with two-foot-tall letters and nice shiny braille dots painted onto the glossy wall underneath. These dots are bigger than a handsbreadth, and I can’t imagine how the blind would know even to feel for them, much less be able to read their flat surfaces. But that’s the magic, isn’t it. That’s why people are lining up to put braille everywhere. It’s just fun. It’s political sensitivity meets pop art.
Anyway that’s the only explanation I can come up with for the bizarre abuses of braille that seem to be proliferating in our modern world. And regular readers know that there’s nothing like a bizarre abuse to get my creative juices flowing, so here are a few other ideas for places to use braille:
Auto dashboards
Movie screens
Petting zoos (I envision baby animals with big ol’ braille dots glued on)
Peep shows
The beach
Firearms
I also think that chirping signal some intersections have to let the blind know when its safe to cross, should basically follow me around. We could all stay out of a lot of trouble that way.
