Joseph Heng shares his views on Being Deaf

Learnt about this SG blogger, SolitaireJoker, via Tomorrow.SG. He muses about being deaf. I learnt a bit more about the Cochlear Implant (he’s a CI recipient).

Found out that his name is Joseph from his About page.

This statement from his blog post (see para 3) struck me as philosophical: “Deafness is potentially the best thing, and yet, the worst thing that can happen to me.“

He also continues in the last para:

But despite all this, I don’t have a choice in the matter, do I? Being deaf is something I was born with, it’s part of who I am. It’s the hand that life dealt me. There’s no point in moping about the what ifs of me not being born deaf. My deafness would still remain part of who I am, and it brings with it its lesson that nothing is to be taken for granted, and that hard work brings with it results.

Well Joseph, from those words, seems to me you have do have choices and you’ve already made one.

Accessible Design in Asia

Spotted this post from Preetam, who came across what he wrote as “Universal Designs”. I’ve not seen Braille on Beer Cans — I thought it was a neat idea, when Preetam pointed out that it’s both to inform those Braille-readers who want to drink beer, as well as those who want to avoid accidentally consuming it. I titled the post “Accessible Design” rather than “Universal Design”, as I felt the term “Universal” was too broad. I’m not sure if any design can truly be “universally”, i.e. accessible by all. But I’m happy to be proven wrong!

I’ve re-produced Preetam’s full post here (as allowed under his CC license):

Last weekend in Hong Kong, I spotted this sign in a taxi. The taxi number is provided both in braille as well as English as raised characters. Nice to see public transport people paying attention to accessibility.

We were talking about this when my brother mentioned Japanese beer cans having braille markings.

Japanese alcoholic drinks also carry an “alcohol” braille character on top to prevent visually disabled people from accidentally consuming it.

Universal design is not just for visually disabled people. Here you see a shampoo and a conditioner bottle from Japan. The bottle on the left contains shampoo and it has markings on one of its sides to distinguish it from the conditioner.

Preetam’s post can be read here.

I’m interested to know if there are more of such design examples. Your email/ comment/ trackback would be much appreciated.

Technorati Tags: design, accessible design, universal design, accessibility