Many lifts when upgraded have added the Braille signs.
Singapore flag
Braille signs in lift (US elevator). Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.
Here are the ones from Cashew Heights in Singapore, a series of skyscrapers 12-16 storeys high, 30 years old, with apartment units up to four bedrooms often containing one or more residents over 50.
The couples with small children are often visited once a year or more by elderly relatives from overseas.
The point is that not only the residents but any visitors can find out where the lift is going and register the floor they are visiting and check if they have stopped at the right floor. The lifts also have robotic voices announcing the floor number on arrival.
The first thing I noticed in the lifts, before the Braille was installed, is the strange way, strange to me from the UK, of ordering the lift buttons. I would expect the buttons to go up in a line. But two is to the right of one. All the odd numbers are on the left. All the even numbers are on the right.
More About The Invention Of Braille
Braille was a blind teenager at school near Paris when he started workign on his system to communicate with his schoolfriends. He adapted his raised dots for the blind from a system used by the military at night. When they could not see at night, before the days of electricity and battery torches, they would use raised dots. Another reason for using dots, was that you did not want to speak at night and give away your position to the enemy.
Braille experimented as a child at school with communicating with his friends. The sighted teachers did not want the pupils to have a secret way of communicating not known to the teachers. But eventually Braille's system caught on amongst the blind school age pupils and adults so the sighted people had to learn it and could see that it was a success.
Now there is an increasing campaign to get sighted people to learn sign language and Braille in order to communicate with blind people. Learning sign language and Braille when you are young has a second advantage for the learner. It also means that if you lose sight later in life you already have the language at your fingertips, literally, and have less of a challenge learning and can cope immediately with daily life.
Places where you can see and learn more about Braille
1 Braille Museum in France, east of Paris.
2 The American Printing House For The Blind Museum, Louisville, Kentucky, USA.
3 Lifts in Singapore and other countries.
Useful Websites
USA
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_of_the_American_Printing_House_for_the_Blind
Picture of Braille bust in French library. Public domain from Wikipedia.
See my other post on Braille.
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.
Singapore flag
Braille signs in lift (US elevator). Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.
Here are the ones from Cashew Heights in Singapore, a series of skyscrapers 12-16 storeys high, 30 years old, with apartment units up to four bedrooms often containing one or more residents over 50.
The couples with small children are often visited once a year or more by elderly relatives from overseas.
The point is that not only the residents but any visitors can find out where the lift is going and register the floor they are visiting and check if they have stopped at the right floor. The lifts also have robotic voices announcing the floor number on arrival.
The first thing I noticed in the lifts, before the Braille was installed, is the strange way, strange to me from the UK, of ordering the lift buttons. I would expect the buttons to go up in a line. But two is to the right of one. All the odd numbers are on the left. All the even numbers are on the right.
More About The Invention Of Braille
Braille was a blind teenager at school near Paris when he started workign on his system to communicate with his schoolfriends. He adapted his raised dots for the blind from a system used by the military at night. When they could not see at night, before the days of electricity and battery torches, they would use raised dots. Another reason for using dots, was that you did not want to speak at night and give away your position to the enemy.
Louis Braille, the inventor of Braille.
Braille experimented as a child at school with communicating with his friends. The sighted teachers did not want the pupils to have a secret way of communicating not known to the teachers. But eventually Braille's system caught on amongst the blind school age pupils and adults so the sighted people had to learn it and could see that it was a success.
Now there is an increasing campaign to get sighted people to learn sign language and Braille in order to communicate with blind people. Learning sign language and Braille when you are young has a second advantage for the learner. It also means that if you lose sight later in life you already have the language at your fingertips, literally, and have less of a challenge learning and can cope immediately with daily life.
Places where you can see and learn more about Braille
1 Braille Museum in France, east of Paris.
2 The American Printing House For The Blind Museum, Louisville, Kentucky, USA.
3 Lifts in Singapore and other countries.
Useful Websites
USA
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_of_the_American_Printing_House_for_the_Blind
Picture of Braille bust in French library. Public domain from Wikipedia.
See my other post on Braille.
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.
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