Last month was Louis Braille’s birthday, but it was just in the last 2 days that the following articles came out about Braille and its relevance in the age of Smartphone Tech. This in the UK Guardian on February 14, 2012: http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=146812288 seemed to be the perfect response to a tech story airing on NPR the day before: http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=146812288. In some ways they are the same story with a completely different twist on the relevance of Braille.
What’s the point of learning to do multiplication when we can purchase a calculator for $2 or use the one on our phones. Why spend the time to learn to spell for that matter when there is a spell check on nearly everything (if one remembers to use it!).
FYI, this whole page on NPR’s site has some great stories on blindness: http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2012/02/13/146812288/braille-under-siege-as-blind-turn-to-smartphones?sc=tw&cc=share
What do you think?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/feb/14/technology-brings-braille-back-apple/print