Braille signs will lead the way (if you can find them)!

Every once in a while, I see a sign written in braille. Most of the time, such signs make me shake my head in disbelief.

For instance, at the corner of University and Bloor in Toronto, there is a braille sign attached to the wall outside the Ombudsperson's building which indicates (as far as I know from the normal lettering above it) that the building is in fact, the Ombudsperson's building. None of the other buildings around the Ombudsperson's building, however, have such signs. I really wonder how useful the sign is. Do blind people who seek the Ombudsperson's building acutally walk along University Avenue dragging their fingers across the facades of the buildings until finally, they find the set of raised dots that they were looking for? Can blind people really count on finding such signs? What happens if someone skims their fingers at the wrong height, missing the sign completely? Would that qualify as height discrimination against the blind?

Another strange place in which I found a braille sign was a washroom at a restaurant. The sign was located on the wall just above the toilet and it bore an instruction not to flush paper towels. Now, I understand that blind people need to rely on their sense of touch more than sighted-people in order to get information but if I were visually impaired person in a public washroom, I wouldn't want to go touching everthing around me. Hell, I wouldn't want to do that regardless of my ability to see. Are blind people expected to grope around the dirty toilet so that someone doesn't have to go in there with a mop every once in a while because someone plugged the toilet with paper towel and caused it to overflow? I say that any blind person who can nail a paper-towel-3-pointer in the bowl from the sink deserves the right to do so!

Then there are the braille no-smoking signs in public areas. Such signs are pure genius. What are the chances that a blind person who needs to light up is going to take the time to scan the walls with their fingers? People in need of a drag are not the most patient sort. Blind people in this category are no exception. I'm sure that conventional no-smoking signs alone cause enough trouble for the visually impaired. Picture a blind person who is having a smoke in front of a conventional no-smoking sign. Think of how many times they might be angrily asked if they are blind and cannot see the sign? If that weren't bad enough, what if the sign WERE in braille and the person were accused of being illiterate and or stupid (after having already been asked angrily if they were blind) simply because they didn't scan every inch of the wall with their fingers?

Who knows? Maybe there is some real utility in these signs. I however, fail to see any.

Hello. I am a HAL-9000 computer

This blog was activated today. Who knows what things I will put in here? I'd like to think that some of the things that I will post here could get me in trouble. MMMM fancy...pure fancy.

Maybe the following SPAMkus (Haikus about SPAM) will get me in trouble with the Hornel company. Hornel makes the pseudo-food called SPAM.

Food for the Masses
SPAM bridges all the Classes
Save Those who make it

While in the Army
You will eat SPAM for Dinner
Outlook not so good

I've never actually eaten any SPAM. I seem to resent it a whole lot though. (Can you tell?)

My pseudo-food of choice is McDonald's, though I hate to admit it. I'm very particular about my pseudo-food. There is a Wendy's one block from where I live. I've only ever eaten there on three occasions, and that was only because I was in a pinch. Thank God it's not a McDonald's.