You may have seen my recent post about The Blind Man. Well, I heard today on NPR that blind men (and women) will actually have the opportunity to become taxi drives. NO JOKE. Here’s the story from The Daily Telegraph:

Taxi drivers offered their Hackney Carriage licence forms in Braille

Taxi drivers applying for their Hackney Carriage licence are being offered the forms in Braille by a council. 

The document, issued by Portsmouth City Council, makes clear that it is also available in large print or audio format for those with sight problems.

A notice at the end reads: “You can get this Portsmouth City Council information in large print, Braille, audio or in another language….”
 
The council, a member of the Plain English Campaign, defended the forms.

Head of customer services Louise Wilders said: “Obviously, a taxi driver would not need the Braille version, but they might find a foreign language version helpful.

“The form is also for employers to fill in – they could need a Braille version.”

The Braille system is a method that is widely used by blind people to read and write. Braille was devised in 1821 by Louis Braille, a blind Frenchman.

Each Braille character or cell is made up of six dot positions, arranged in a rectangle containing two columns of three dots each.