@35: I swear you remind me of somebody who gave me a sociology and history class in five minutes while drunk yesterday....and it was amazing!
You do raise an interesting point actually about moral consumerism, and ethics as well about marketing but that may be outside the scope of this topic. My stance on it is, is it right to focus on symbols of blindness, when they are constructed by society to classify blind or disabled people? Also, a wheelchair is just as much a symbol of its respective disability however, as a seeing eye dog or a cane or Braille is.
On the subject of Braille being capitalized, Bob Dylan capitalized it in Subterranean Homesick Blues, so there's your useful music fact of the day as well. And on the note of typing, I'll just point out how godawful laptop keyboards are for hands and wrists. Something I haven't seen brought up, and it may just be a generational thing, is that at least when I was in school, the NTAs would read out the braille writing or text in class, and, worryingly, in exams as well despite obvious flaws. It was more a hushed whisper, but.....honor system much? I don't know if that's still a thing, but.....
Also on the subject of forced Braille use (Yes I'm gonna capitalize it, come at me!), I disagree. I think everyone should have the choice of what they use, be it braille, computers, hammering bits of wood with a mallet to form letters, smoke signals and so forth. Point is, I don't agree with the 'you are blind, you /must/ use Braille' argument, because again, that is linked back to symbols of blindness. Actually on that note, I was discussing this with a blind friend who raised a lot of good points, he said Braille itself isn't the problem, it's how it is used, and how people assume blind people can't use a computer or phone. Additionally, said friend (mid 30s), brought up the symbols argument in a very interesting way, he said in school, you stick out because you're using a Brailler or Braille display, you're a prime target for bullies to pick on.
I'll dive into my societal argument, and bear with me here...
Okay, @35 brought up symbols of blindness. I'm gonna link this all the wayback to a discussion I had yesterday on a MU* (of all places) about Victorian ideals and child rearing. It'll all make sense, trust me. It'll all make sense...
So, how's this all link together? Victorian ideals. The ideal that you are stuck in a rigid social structure. You are a child and you are a pure, free of sin pretty little snowflake who is incapable of sin. Society still views children as precious (rightly or wrongly), which led to the churches using blindness and disability as proof you are not 'pure'. Masturbating will cause blindness. You're not devout enough? God will punish you by smiting you with blindness, et cetera. Given how much sway religion held in the 18th Centruy, it's not a shock to think society wanted to keep the 'sinners' away from the 'pure, good religious types. An additional factor wasn't just religion but the idea disabled people were not fit to work and thus not needed in a society such as Victorian England, where they were locked away and pretending they didn't exist to make the society look and feel better about itself, the 'out of sight, out of mind' standard, lock the disabled away and society doesn't have to look at them.
An additional factor in religion is this as well. Society has a heavy base in religion, and in Christianity, Jesus (at least going by how the Bible's written) heals the disabled to show how amazing he is. That leads society and religion to view blind people as in need of healing or help even when they aren't.
So, looping all this back to Louis Braille (yeah see, I capitalized it correctly), and symbols of blindness in 2019....
There is still the push by companies to identify disabled people and Braille is one way of doing that. There is a school of thought that instead of putting Braille on things and identifying it as 'for the blind', maybe a new system should be thought up. Instead of, for example, a door having a Braille sign a QR code would be on the door, you'd scan it and it'd send the Braille to your display or phone for example. People are still not treating disabled as the same class of citizen, and you can push laws through, but in the end it needs a shitload more to change people's opinions.
Warning: Grumpy post above
Also on Linux natively
Jace's EA PGA Tour guide for blind golfers