I seriously doubt that your signmaker knows what he is talking about. There has been a disgraceful trend in this country for teachers of the blind to be reluctant to teach braille, often arguing that modern technology makes braille unnecessary. I am seventy years old myself, and have worked with blind folks for a very long time. A lot of blind folks regard the white cane and the use of braille as signs of weakness and dependency instead of signs of strength and independence, and I do not see any tendency for the situation to be improving. I hope I am wrong. Mayrbe others have a different view. Chuck. On Sat, 11 Mar 2000 cpt.kirk at 1tree.net wrote: > As far as target audience, I see it as being yourng professional (heading > to be a professional) blind people. A sign maker pointed out to me why the > overwhelming majority of blind people don't read braille. According to > information he had, well over half of the blind people in america are over > the age of 65. Let's face it, retired people are not likely to have the > moitvation to learn braille. I don't know what the litteracy statistic for > blind people under the age of about 35 are. > > If one isn't willing to learn at least rudimentary braille, then I would > doubt the person's need for a pda anyway. But once a workable PDA was > arround, getting a normal keyboard isn't too tough. > > Kirk Wood > Cpt.Kirk at 1tree.net > ------------------ > > Your fly might be open (but don't check it just now). > > > _______________________________________________ > Speakup mailing list > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup > My Web site is http://www.mhonline.net/~chuckh "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- Benjamin Franklin, 1759.
