Hellen Keller Doll

[ysabetwordsmith]

For those of you collecting accessibility toys, Mattel has released a Hellen Keller doll, complete with Braille labeling.  \o/ 

Comments

Annoyed

[dialecticdreamer]

The Braille letters on her book spell nothing. It's nonsense. I hope the packaging has real Braille on it.

Re: Annoyed

[ysabetwordsmith]

O_O That is a serious fuckup.

Re: Annoyed

[dialecticdreamer]

They only fit three letters on the book in Barbie Keller's arms, and after putting the zoom at 500%, I could read the letters "B-R-L."

Which may be the abbreviation for "Braille," (the indexes of abbreviations aren't very searchable) but it took maximum zoom to see it. Argh.

If they got it right, I'll take back the last fifty nasty things I said about Mattel and/or Barbie in general.

Re: Annoyed

[ysabetwordsmith]

http://www.brl.org/refdesk/conlookup.html

Re: Annoyed

[dialecticdreamer]

They got it right!

I hereby apologize for my last fifty snarky comments about Mattel and the Barbie empire.

Re: Annoyed

[chanter1944]

BRL is the abbreviation, in grade 2 Braille, for the word Braille.

Re: Annoyed

[dialecticdreamer]

Yeah, I figured that out once I could see the third letter clearly. *G*

I haven't used Grade Two Braille in decades and it shows.

Re: Annoyed

[chanter1944]

I didn't know you knew grade 2 Braille! Squee!

Once I hit reply and backread, I realized the meaning of the letters had already been figured out. Whoops!

Re: Annoyed

[ysabetwordsmith]

I don't read Braille, but I had better luck turning up a page that would identify contractions. Knowing that the letters were BRL and comparing that to Braille, it seemed like a good bet. \o/

Re: Annoyed

[dialecticdreamer]

I'm trying to relearn how to read it with neuropathy (numbness) in my hands. It's incredibly frustrating, even with the little Braille modeler I have (It's like a three-line Rubik's cube, and you twist it to show zero, one, or two pips in each row. The dots are about 1/4" in diameter, and just as tall... and I can barely feel them.

So, while I love Braille, I'm probably going to have to give in and learn to sight read the stuff!