Braille Signage: Why Your Business Needs It

Losing vision or even partial eyesight can happen to anybody, anywhere. Unfortunately, people around us with this disability often feel inferior as they can not move around independently. Braille signage is for them so that they can have a close to a self-reliant life. Let’s talk a bit more about Braille Signage.

What is Braille Signage

Braille signage is something that many people don’t know about, but it’s essential. Braille signage helps blind and visually impaired people navigate the world around them. 

For example, there may be braille signage in a train station or on an airplane to help guide you to your gate or seat respectively.

Braille is created by using raised dots for letters of the alphabet so that those who cannot see can feel their way through words with their fingers and read them as they touch each dot.

This tactile method of reading has been around since 1829. Louis Braille invented it for his use after becoming blind at age 03 from an accident involving metal cutting tools and an explosion in his father’s workshop.

Now Braille signage is an application of the Braille language. Braille signage intends to translate the usual signs that we encounter and use in our day-to-day life into braille. It allows the disabled ones around us to move around with freedom and comfort. Toilet signs, elevator signs, regular direction signs, etc., are usually transformed into Braille form to move with ease.

Why Braille Signage is Important

We all want to be on our own and stay that way. It’s a fundamental need to be able to live independently. But, what about the people who have lost their eyesight? Don’t they deserve to have an independent, self-reliant life? Yes, they do. Braille signage is something that can help them to have a more regular and easy life. For example:

• Every day, we start our day using the elevator to come out of the apartment or enter the office building. You need to push buttons to use the elevator, and there won’t be an operator every time, everywhere. Also, it’s not an option to ask others for it. Braille signage for the buttons will allow the visually disabled ones to operate it independently and thus have an easier life.
• Before going to work, you may want to have your breakfast or a coffee. To enter the diner or the coffee shop, you need to pull or push the door. But how do they know if it is to pull or push? Braille signage on the handle will sort that out.
• Everybody needs to use the restroom. If the place is not familiar, they have to identify the toilet by the signs. Using a Braille sign for this will sort it for someone with eyesight issues.
• Direction signs with Braille signage allow them to move around without any difficulty.
• Putting necessary Braille signs across the apartment or office building shows that you care for them.
• And, last but not least, it’s essential to post braille signs so that visually impaired people can navigate your shop and manufacturing facility more efficiently. If you neglect this law, then it could cost a hefty amount of fines!

The importance of braille signage cannot be understated because it allows those with visual impairments to navigate their surroundings more easily. As you can imagine, life can be difficult if we lose any of our senses, and to keep people from being depressed or even suicidal its best if we can accommodate them as much as possible, and make their lives easier.

It’s our moral duty to look for people with disabilities around us and make things easier as much as we can. Having Braille signage can be an excellent step towards it.