At least, that’s the rap. Fewer than 10% of the 1.3 million legally blind Americans can read Braille (that system of raised dots on a page that a blind person can translate, by finger-touch, into words). As paper publishing evolved to embrace digital tools that translate Braille into spoken words, many of the blind have not had to learn the Braille system. This puts them at a disadvantage when seeking jobs as most material they would have to work with has not been digitized… providing perhaps the first case-history of digital progress being regressive. Next challenge: helping the blind text and tweet… and don’t think that can’t happen someday.

Jerry Constantino, Feb. 8, 2010

Jerry Constantino was President and Publisher of PJS Publications, a group of 20 special interest magazines owned by VS&A Venture Capital and later, Primedia. He now writes fiction and blogs irrelevantly at itsnutsoutthere.blogspot.com.

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