braille

I was showing my braille slate to some friends, who wanted to know how to use it.

They all watched while [Mary] laid a sheet of thick, cream-colored paper on the slate, under the slide. She moved the slide to the top of the frame and secured it there. Then with the point of the stylus she pressed, rapidly, here and there in the corners of the open squares.

"There," she said, slipping the paper out and turning it over. Wherever the stylus had pressed, there was a tiny bump, that could easily be felt with the fingers. The bumps made different patterns, the size of the squares, and these were the Braille letters. ---These Happy Golden Years, Chapter 15, "Mary Comes Home"

I wrote my name. I don't know why it boggled their minds that I would know how to write my name in Braille, only I wrote it in New York Point, turning the slate sideways. It boggled my mind more that anyone who knew me even a little would assume that I couldn't write my name that way.

The cartoon above is from xkcd, a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language. Warning: this comic occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors).
- posted by pioneergirl at 2:48 AM