For the blind

For the blind
Originally uploaded by mtstaffa.

One thing i had always pondered (among the many things) is how do the blind find those little bumps on signs? So sure, there are brail words under each sign....like an elevator sign, but how do they get to the elevator, let alone the sign to find those ever so important brail directions? Do they run their hands along the wall desperately hoping to find a sign? And they are all at the same height (the signs that is), and im sure that is due to some regulatory rule, but what do short (or midget) blind people do? Are they forced to carry ladders and guess where a "tall person" sign with brail might be? Well, if you are blind and live in Japan, fear not. The Japanese government has taken great care of you. Across the entire country....and i mean all over, the government has placed brail sidewalks. Yep. Everywhere you walk, there is a line with raised "bars". Simply follow the raised bars until your feet step on some raised "bumps". The raised "bumps" mean that the blind person has to make a decision. I.e. turn left or right or wait for a cross walk signal (complete with a beep to let you know when it is safe to cross). So, as you can see in this pic, there are raised bars along a line, until it forks, then there are raised bumps, and the person needs to decide to turn and head towards the ticket machine, where the bumps tell the person to stop. Then, convienently there are buttons that speak the directions, so reading is not necessary. I also think it was a good idea to make the "brail line" yellow so it is easier for the blind to see. One of my favorite things to do in Japan is to try to go a whole day without opening my eyes. It can be done. I made it until 3pm one day. It gets hard when going to the bathroom because the raised bumps do not descriminate based on sex. So either the bumps and bars are for the blind, or the severly dumb people...either way it is a great tool for society.