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The daughter of a coworker of mine has an elementary-school friendship with a blind girl. When she wanted to write a letter to her, I embossed the text for her

The daughter of a coworker of mine has an elementary-school friendship with a blind girl. When she wanted to write a letter to her, I embossed the text for her, because, you know, I can write braille. I was told the little girl was very thrilled to receive a piece of paper she could actually read. But I guess this sort of human interaction isn't worth the effort, right? :-( Sad to read your attitude.

alisonkisk 5y ago
Please don't be an asshole. You can do a one-off transliteration+embossing without becoming fluent in Braille or owning a dedicated Braille input device. The braille input device wouldn't make the task notably easier, since it is trivial to mechanically or electronically transliterate letters into Braille.
detaro 5y ago
> But I guess this sort of human interaction isn't worth the effort, right? Parent didn't say that. Do you really think adding that ending is making your comment more convincing?
- mlang23 5y ago
  Looking into a mirror can really hurt. Guess what, I dont care. I have been belittled, ignored, swept aside, manhandled, pushed across a street, you name it. I dont feel particularily bad if someone outside of my bubble is confronted with how their priviledged utterings make other people feel.
DiggyJohnson 5y ago
You're being very disingenuous to assume that we all make decisions like the one being talked about in a vacuum.
542354234235 5y ago
You embossed a letter because you knew how to emboss. I could look up the braille alphabet for the letter faster than I could learn how to, and actually, emboss the letter itself. You don’t even need to look it up. Braille Neue is a great font that prints the roman letters with the braille locations you can then emboss. Since braille is a letter for letter transcription of English, again, what is the utility to the blind for widespread learning by the sighted? It isn’t sign language, which is a distinct language used by the hearing impaired to communicate. It is literally just a 3d font.
- nostrilwig 5y ago
  sorry, but braille is much more than "literally jhst a 3d font". Contractions define "shortcuts" for e.g. word endings or whole words. see e.g https://brailleworks-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/brailleworks.com/braille-resources/what-is-braille/amp/?amp_js_v=0.1&usqp=mq331AQCKAE%3D#Grade2Braille https://brailleworks-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/brailleworks... for some examples.
tsimionescu 5y ago
The problem of sending braille printed text to a blind person and the problem of being able to type braille personally are entirely separate. I can type on a normal keyboard and print out the document as braille. The fact that braille printers are rare is a very sad fact. The discussion above was not about hand writing (embossing) braille. That is a separate consideration, and I have personally never sent a letter to a friend of any kind, so not being able to send a letter to a blind friend doesn't seem like such a problem to me personally. If I were in the habit of sending hand-written letters to friends and acquaintances, I do think it would be a nice effort to learn braille in case I ever need to send such a letter to a friend.

alisonkisk 5y ago

Please don't be an asshole. You can do a one-off transliteration+embossing without becoming fluent in Braille or owning a dedicated Braille input device. The braille input device wouldn't make the task notably easier, since it is trivial to mechanically or electronically transliterate letters into Braille.

detaro 5y ago

> But I guess this sort of human interaction isn't worth the effort, right? Parent didn't say that. Do you really think adding that ending is making your comment more convincing?

mlang23 5y ago
Looking into a mirror can really hurt. Guess what, I dont care. I have been belittled, ignored, swept aside, manhandled, pushed across a street, you name it. I dont feel particularily bad if someone outside of my bubble is confronted with how their priviledged utterings make other people feel.

DiggyJohnson 5y ago

You're being very disingenuous to assume that we all make decisions like the one being talked about in a vacuum.

542354234235 5y ago

You embossed a letter because you knew how to emboss. I could look up the braille alphabet for the letter faster than I could learn how to, and actually, emboss the letter itself. You don’t even need to look it up. Braille Neue is a great font that prints the roman letters with the braille locations you can then emboss. Since braille is a letter for letter transcription of English, again, what is the utility to the blind for widespread learning by the sighted? It isn’t sign language, which is a distinct language used by the hearing impaired to communicate. It is literally just a 3d font.

nostrilwig 5y ago
sorry, but braille is much more than "literally jhst a 3d font". Contractions define "shortcuts" for e.g. word endings or whole words. see e.g https://brailleworks-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/brailleworks.com/braille-resources/what-is-braille/amp/?amp_js_v=0.1&usqp=mq331AQCKAE%3D#Grade2Braille https://brailleworks-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/brailleworks... for some examples.

tsimionescu 5y ago

The problem of sending braille printed text to a blind person and the problem of being able to type braille personally are entirely separate. I can type on a normal keyboard and print out the document as braille. The fact that braille printers are rare is a very sad fact. The discussion above was not about hand writing (embossing) braille. That is a separate consideration, and I have personally never sent a letter to a friend of any kind, so not being able to send a letter to a blind friend doesn't seem like such a problem to me personally. If I were in the habit of sending hand-written letters to friends and acquaintances, I do think it would be a nice effort to learn braille in case I ever need to send such a letter to a friend.