(I was hoping that the Braille would work in the title bar, but no… it doesn’t even work here.)
For those not in the know, Braille is a writing system used by blind people which takes the form of a set pattern of raised bumps. Take, for example, this message:
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This translates to English as ‘Be kind to others.’
Numbers can also be read in this manner, as can punctuation and even accented letters (visit Omniglot for the whole alphabet).
Obviously, technology is actually a bit of a bind for blind people. I mean how the hell can you expect them to use a screen? Even a typewriter’s going to be a bugger.
Yes, you can read and make telephone calls – as long as the buttons are marked accordingly. As for screens though – fuhgeddaboutit. Because we’re so image-concious as a species, we forget that the blind and partially sighted are going to be stuffed when it comes to watching films or even browsing the web. I can even only find one text-to-Braille converter. At best, text is usually transformed into spoken word.
How about a wristwatch then? It’s a visual display, isn’t it? Well yes, but it’s easy to modify to speak the time. However, there may be situations where you don’t want to make a noise (eg middle of the night) or you can’t hear it.
That’s where this watch comes in; yes it can speak the time, but it also has a nifty Braille face.

Until recently, the problem has been trying to make the mechanical workings small enough to fit into something of this size. It’s been designed by WinG Li, but I can’t seem to find a page for him other than the blog site I found the article on…
Go visit The Design Blog for more.








