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Comment by laurent92 | Hacker News Reader

Sure, but if you have a few keys to press, why not go all the way and make it a Braille keyboard? It would teach sight-able people how to write braille.

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> It would teach sight-able people how to write braille.

Is this an interesting goal? I absolutely understand why it would be extremely valuable for most people to know their local sign language for communication with those who can't hear, but I fail to see how wider learning of a very special writing system (one that anyway can't be currently read from electronic devices) would impact the sight-impaired community.

There are definitely electronic Braille reading devices. They're called refreshable braille displays, and are often also combined with a specialized keyboard.

Wider adoption could conceivably improve these interfaces through more users and commercial interest.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refreshable_braille_display

Awesome, I wasn't aware of this! Thank you for the link! I believed Text-to-Speech is the only option used for HCI by people who can't see a screen.

That doesn't read Braille. It reads digital data and writes Braille.

its a reading device in the sense that an amazon kindle is a reading device, a device with which to read

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.

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.

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... for some examples.

> 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?

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.

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.

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

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