St. Louis Braille

Forgive me for a little misplaced nostalgia, but I miss the days of Braille. I have never been able to read it - I have no exceptional sense of touch, and I've always been able to see well enough to read at some level - but I love the idea of it.

One of my favorite podcasts, NPR's On the Media, did a great segment on the history, effects, and current state of Braille:



There's only one issue I have with the story, which is that it uses a misleading statistic. When they say that 10% of legally blind people today can read Braille, they're probably right: I'm an example of a typical case. But there are plenty of people like me who should never have learned it in the first place. Being legally blind does NOT mean, with today's technology, that you can't read text. There are plenty of options other than audiobooks. Just wanted to put that out there. That said, when Braille first got started, it was the only option.

Bottom line: before Braille, the blind were employable as panhandlers and oracles, and that was about it. Today people forget to make accommodations for us because they figure we can read with our hands. That's progress, right?