Limited Utility

[akirlu]

So, I went down to Parnassus to get hot chocolate & a croissant this morning. As I sometimes do. But for the first time, as I was waiting for the barista, I noticed the sign over the entry doors. Located above the entry and offset to the side, maybe seven feet up, it's a pretty typical sign, really: "These doors to remain unlocked during business hours." Okay, that's fine. But can someone tell me who thought it would be useful to anyone at all to duplicate the text in Braille?

Comments

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Snort!

Serious reply to such a curious Vivid Mental Image: It's a stock sign, rather than a custom-made one. If it were displayed at a height readable to the blind, they could well be more interested in confirming that a door can be counted on as an emergency exit than their sighted fellow coffee fiends, in this case. Or sighted people in other retail establishments, in the general case.

If it was a custom-made sign, it's quite possible that the sign maker didn't know for certain where it would be posted.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

How do you know the text was the same in braille? It's a good guess, to be sure, but perhaps they are making fun of you.

And since I don't have an e-mail for you though you're likely not to be here in time, you're invited to my 50th birthday party next Saturday. E-mail me for directions from Seattle...

BTW: Do you ever deal with Vagrant Records in Seattle? Just got some e-mail from them, out of the blue.

[numbat.livejournal.com]

Probably some bastard like me who wants to mess with people's minds.

[marykaykare.livejournal.com]

Personally, I suspect some of that intrusive government regulation about how signs are to be made readable (?) by all. But they neglected to stipulate height restrictions....

MKK

[yonmei.livejournal.com]

These signs are mass-produced, I suspect, and are reproduced in Braille because some of them will be at a height reachable by nonsighted readers. Like Braille keys on ATMs: they're all like that, even the ones that are unlikely ever to be used by an unsighted person.