Ten Brilliant Facts About Braille

by Kelli Finger (from Mental Floss website)    Braille is a tactile system that blind people use to learn to read and write, invented in 1824 by a blind French educator named Louis Braille.     He revolutionized an existing writing and reading system that allowed blind people to enjoy books  and communication. I certainly don’t know …

A Writer Chronicles His Loss Of Vision

by Robert Ito New York Times    In 2019, Andrew Leland began writing a book about blindness, even as he was going steadily blind himself.    Working as his vision deteriorated gave him an insider’s perspective — who better to write about the blind than the blind? — but, as he learned, also made writing …

Blind People Struggling in War-Torn Ukraine

by Hanna Arhirova Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) Sunlight filters through shattered windows, casting a glow upon the dusty furniture and fragments of glass strewn across the floor of the office belonging to Oleksandr Vinkovskyi, director of a Kyiv business where visually impaired people worked.    Vinkovskyi is blind, and can’t see the scale of …

P&O Cruises Humiliates Blind Passengers

by Kevin Burton    For blind people, being a second-class citizen would represent an upgrade. The following provides another example that proves, when it comes down to it, blind people aren’t treated as citizens at all.   This story was widely reported. My information comes from Insider.    “Two blind passengers who were ordered to …

Feeding Body, Mind And Spirit On The Road

by Kevin Burton    Got an unexpected comfort on the road last week that filled the stomach and the heart.    There isn’t much I don’t like about being on the road. I can see why so many people have written so many love songs to the road and the road life.    I’ve spent …

Seeking An SOS From Beepball And ABBA

by Kevin Burton    Eureka I say, eureka! I have my beep baseball problems figured out.    In athletics they say, father time is undefeated, and that’s true. But all I need is a great idea, and an SOS, from ABBA.    This is truly exciting!    You’ve probably heard about ABBA Voyage, a virtual …

Blind Women Helping Detect Breast Cancer

   In a bare room in a remote government-run primary health center in Vapi, a city in the south-west Indian state of Gujarat, Meenakshi Gupta holds a diagram of a woman’s breast with five Braille-marked orientation tapes pasted on it. Speaking to the woman sitting on the bed, she says: “I’ll paste these skin-friendly tapes on your …

Burton Ride Service Delivers (For Me)

by Kevin Burton    The following is a product/service review for the Burton Ride Service, located in South Central Kansas.    The service was formally established in 2012. Terms and conditions for this service are written between the lines of a 2012 marriage license obtained in Sedgwick County, Kansas.    This review is written and …

Video Killed Your Imagination, Not Radio

I think I’m done writing about MTV and Clear Channel for the moment, but I have one more thought on that Buggles tune, “Video Killed The Radio Star.”     I raised the question without answering it in my Friday story: “If you could get your favorite top 40 hits, with pictures, moving pictures, wouldn’t that …

Any Day, Anytime, Anyplace

by Kevin Burton    You pays your money, you takes your chances.    If we’re being honest, is that not a suitable tagline for the post-national United States?    Isn’t that phrase a lot more indicative of the American experience than say “land of the free, home of the brave?”    Now that phrase is …