Category: Let's talk
Hello all,
Yesterday, I received a letter from NFB, informing me of the braille literacy crisis in America.
This letter arrived in print!!!
A print letter, speaking about a braille literacy crisis, arriving at a blind woman's household. Ironic!
However, it is encouraging folks to purchase the Louis Braille Bicentennial Silver Dollar, which sounds pretty cool!
Learn more at:
www.braille.org
Not just ironic, but also highly amusing.
It's the, braille on the drive-through ATM joke, except funnier. lol
Hehehehe, my other favorite is:
I use to receive mail from guide dogs for the blind. How did I know this...? On the outside of the envelope was a braille address return label. So, I knew who the letter came from but clueless of it's contents. Yep, the letter was print!
Maybe we should start, randomly sending braille mailings to sighted folks. Let's have a printed envelope, so they know who the mailing is from, but the important stuff is 100% in braille. Hehehehhe!
Outside envelope, you've won a million dollars, read inside to learn how to claimb your money!
Outside envelope, IRS urgent!
Outside envelope, Gas company, final notice!
Heehehehe! *grin*
A lot of organizations for and of the blind tend to make this obvious mistake. Probably because they send out such mass mailings, and don't know precisely who is blind and who is sighted. But still, it is indeed an irony, and amusing, as has been said.
hahaha I like the million dollar one. I bet they'd look everywhere to find a blind person to read the maling (provided they believe it true) and when they find one, he reads something like "sorry, we lost your check" in braille. I'd love that. :)
What about large print? I'd expect organizations for the blind to at least make that accomedation.
And, the day Publishers Clearinghouse starts sending out braille notifications of unexpected windfall, I'll eat my Zone account.
That is really ironic and funny! *smile* I actually got that mailing about the literacy crisis thing in my email; I think they had gotten my address from when I signed up for Newsline. But anyways. Yeah, A funny situation for me was that when I was 16, I had received a print letter about going to driving school. It might not be that much a big deal because they probably don't keep track of who really can or can't drive, but it was still really amusing to me and some of the people I showed it to. *smile*
The sending braille to sighted people would actually be a pretty cool (and amusing) idea. *smile* It actually might also make people more aware of braille as well, which would be a very good thing for us. I like that idea about announcing that they won something. I bet that (or something similar) would really motivate a sighted person to want to learn Braille). I know the idea that we could play cards in the dark was what motivated one of my nephews to learn to read my Uno and playing cards by touch, so who knows? *smile*
Haha. That is funny. Usually when I get mail from the CNIB, they include both a print and a braille copy. Maybe they expect that you have a scanner, and can scan the print letter, and then read it that way, but it's still very ironic. hahaha.
since such a small percent of us can read braille, that may be the motivating factor. however, for a braille literacy crisis they should have sent a braille letter with print over the lines at least. how dumb. made my day.
the braille institute sends out a braille catalog of free books for kids. the order form in the back is in print. annoying to say the least.
oh, as for the driving thing, i put the entire school system in a tizzy i was told. at the time i was ready to get my license, they had driver's ed as a part of gym class. you could take it on a first come first serve basis. i was the first to sign up. i did it on a dare and wanted to see what would happen. the principle called me in to his office and hemmed and hawed and said that the kind thing for me to do would be to give my space to someone who could use it since funding was limmited blah blah blahh. i said of course i would gladly do so, i just wanted to see what would happen. apparently it was a civil rights issue and they were concerned i might have sued.
Leele, what do you think your zone accountwill taste like? Zesty lemon? *grin*
That is funny about the drivers ed thing.
When I was in high school, I kept receiving mailings from the military to sign up. A recruter actually called me!
To this day, I still receive car insurance offers, and my name is nowhere on our car! Heehehehe!
Hey, here is a side note... A friend of mine went to get her state ID; she walked out with a boating license! *lol*
You know, I always notice things like this. I, too, have received newsletters, etc, from the guide dog school I attended, and I also receive printed materials from the National Library Services for the Blind. Seems so stupid to me. Granted, there are those who do have scanners and text-to-speech programs that aide in reading printed materials, but there are also those of us who don't have these things.
I also find it ironic that there are so many people talking about how braille isn't being used nearly as much as it used to, but yet organizations and groups who are advocating such things send their own materials in print.
Maybe it's a financial issue. Maybe the economy is just so screwed that they can't even aford to put their material in alternative formats. A sad but likely possibility.
Post 11, since I haven't been on here in a while, it might taste like stail bread. Bleh!
Getting print from blindy organizations drives me crazy. My state's rehab agency and the local library for the blind does it too. I always assumed it was because so few people actually read Braille. But, then again, how many of us actually read print? I guess they send print because it is cheaper.
After I lost my vision, I voluntarily went to the DMV to surrender my drivers license and get an ID. When I told the lady what I was doing, she asked if I had received a letter asking me to give up my license. When I told her no, she started to tell me I couldn't get an ID since I didn't have a letter. I asked her if she really wanted me to be a licensed driver. Then she asked her supervisor what to do and they finally decided to take my license. Ridiculous.
Hahaha. It's funny that there would be controversy over that one. who wants a totally blind driver on the road. You know what's also funny? I applied for the AT BC program for visually impaired students who are going to college, and they asked me to provide a driver's license as a form of ID.
I also get letters that are in print. It is quite annoying! Oh well.
I just tell them not to bother sending me the mail, as i'll just throw it away anyway. So, if they are worried about saving money in this economy, they'd not send me worthless print that is just going to go through the shredder anyway. I do everything online.
I think my favorite lines in the auto insurance letters are something like: "We're looking for people like you who have such a good driving record." and "We don't just insure anyone, and that's why we keep our insurance rates low."
Lou
Omg omg omg omg omg, Lou. that is such a scream! By insuring blind people, they keep their rates low. Lol at all of this.
Wait just a second, you guys. You're looking at it totally the wrong way! I think I get it. See, you have to take into consideration the whole NFB philosophy. When they send you a print letter, they know you actually can't see, but they think if you think positively enough and really put your mind to it and use all your blindness skills, you'll just be able to read that print, just as if you were all normal and sighted and everything! Braille will just make you look dependent and nobody will hire you and people will not like you and be scared of you for not assimilating. Remember, when they say blind people can do anything, they literally mean anything! I'm off to get my airline pilot's license. Happy landings, whatever that means. Hahahahaha!
lol that was good
what kills me is that my state library sends me not one but three print letters. there are three blind people in my family. no sighted ones at this time. does it not occur to them that we might speak to each other? I wrote them and asked to have the mailing list fixed and they said no. oh yes, they also send, in a completely other envelope three braille notifications of the same thing. again, i asked if they could eliminate the print and just use the braille and was told they couldn't. fine. if they want to kill trees and waste money it's not my problem.
yeah. No problem at all. It's just a few wasted trees. Whatever happened to the concept of environmentalism?
I have been reading all this stuff about receiving printed letters when we can only read bra8ille. I agree with all that has been said here, especially the part about mailing braill to sighted people! If I didn't already do things another way, I would start sending braille checks to all my payees!
I tend to get a lot of auto insurance stuff as wwell. It sort of reminds me of the first ever blind contestant on Jeopardy. I forget his name but after he'd won I believe his fifth game, the Jeopardy folks were going to award him two cars as a price but came to the rather obvious realization that as a blind man he wasn't going to get much if any use out of them. I've heard of blind people keeping their own cars so sighted people can drive them places but in all honesty I've never seen sense in that since the sighted person is more than likely going to have a car of their own that they prefer to drive. Getting back on topic here though. I don't know if it's true in the rst of the US and I can't speak for other countries, but did you know that it's perfectly legal for a blind individual to get a hunting license? Not a fishing license mind, although that's also legal, but an actual hunting license, with guns, bows and arrows and such. The theory is that a sighted companion can tell the blind person where the deer is and the blind person can shoot it. I've fired guns on many occasions but never in that setting. Nor would I dare to be quite frank. I just don't feel my reflexes are nearly fast enough for that.
regarding hunting licenses it's a hell of a lot easier to fish without seeing then to hunt. that's crazy that you can get a hunting license. of course most of the guys i know are a lot poorer shots then they want me to believe....
this whole braille thing reminds me of the whole experience programs high schools have. mom and dad get a note saying that the principal recommended junior for a trip to europe for the summer. they just have to pay a certain amount. now granted some of these are legit, but some are not. when i home schooled, i got them all the time, which cracked me up. i was the principal and not the turri accademy of learning and life was not rich enough to send anyone to europe.
Everything I get from the seeing eye comes via e mail and on cd, and they are Braille labeled, which is neat. just one more great thing about that school! Anyways, it's interesting that a non profit school will do that, and yet, the government, even when it comes to the state agencies for the blind, the SSA etc, send everything out in print, in English and in Spanish. But god forbid they send it electronicly, in Braille, on cd rom, tape, etc. It is quite annoying and when you bring it up with them, they don't really care.
It does seem as if Spanish speakers in particular are more important than those who read Braille or in some other form such as Email or audio. That's one thing I've never understood about Guide Dogs for the Blind. They ask you about your three preferred forms of correspondence and then send you stuff in Print. Oh, there's a braille label on the outside of the envelope. Big deal!
I hope it was a joke, but this guy was sitting by the schools library and I walked by him to get somethings printed. I kindly said hi, and asked how he was. He told me he was fine. I asked his profession and he told me he was a performer of sorts and he was recruiting for the army. He then proceeded to ask me if I wanted to be on the army. I wasn't sure to laugh or not. I told him, "Seriously, you want me on the army? ... No thanks..." Seriously, though... pretty funny.