I mean… It’s actually an extremely small portion of the population who read braille. In the US, only about 10% of non sighted people read Braille, so as a functional and necessary language it has about 75,000-100,000 readers out of about 340 million.
But- a non sighted person who uses braille can make use of those buttons.
Consider 2 scenarios. The first is one where a person frequents a location such as their place or work or is a regular at a place of business. They could learn where the items they want are through asking a sighted person for assistance etc. and then order that item at their convenience.
Another scenario- “blind” is a contentious word but it is what many think of when discussing things like braille- and to many, being “blind” implies you see nothing. This isn’t true though.
Legally and effectively, a person doesn’t need to have total loss of vision to be classified as unsighted. Many so called “blind” people can see in some capacity. They might only see light and dark, maybe some colors or basic shapes. They may be only able to have useful vision if they are very close or at a certain angle or other certain conditions are met, but they don’t just see the world as though a fully sighted person might if their eyes were closed.
For those people, it can be hard to make out words and symbols and such, but they might be able to recognize shapes or colors etc. to identify an object such as being able to recognize their favorite snack in a vending machine, but not able tl see the writing on the keypad. How would they know the code for that slot? If they are able to make out the general rows of products, it’s usually the case you can assume the top row is A and numbers go 1 and up from top left to bottom right- at least in English speaking countries.
That may not always be true and there may be some trial and error, but being unsighted in a society most often tailored to the sighted and often without thought or much thought to the unsighted can have its challenges that at times could seem silly or ridiculous someone has to put up with that to handle even many “simple” tasks.
In general with some help or tools or experience, most unsighted people can navigate the world just fine. Some consideration goes a long way of course.
So I’m the one hand, braille isn’t the most common language and there are many technologies that can help make things easier than braille. Braille isn’t perfect by far, some of the fastest readers in braille can only read at about the rate of a non college educated sighted adult, and reading the 500-1000 words per minute a sighted sight reader can achieve would be difficult, rare, improbable.
But braille still has usefulness and can be helpful, and there are those who embrace a culture of non sightedness and see braille as part of that culture and history to be preserved and carried forward.
It isn’t necessarily that braille isn’t more common because of any short comings, more so there are various factors at play and trends which among other things contribute to a decline in braille readers.
Many unsighted children are “mainlined” into public schools that are built around sighted learning and a sighted audience and often do not have the time or resources to teach braille and it generally isn’t part of a standard universal curriculum. These children often need to find other ways to communicate and be able to do their work.
Technology is a contributing factor but despite all the capabilities and prevalence of technology, it isn’t the case that things like text to speech “solve” all the challenges of being unsighted in a society built around the sighted or remove the need for other ways to navigate and communicate.
So the subject is deeper than this format allows- if you’re interested in more I’d read up on it, but to be clear, I am not saying braille is pointless or dying or obsolete or anything if that nature, I’m just stating that braille, like anything, has it’s strengths and weaknesses and works well in some circumstances and less in others.
But- a non sighted person who uses braille can make use of those buttons.
Consider 2 scenarios. The first is one where a person frequents a location such as their place or work or is a regular at a place of business. They could learn where the items they want are through asking a sighted person for assistance etc. and then order that item at their convenience.
Another scenario- “blind” is a contentious word but it is what many think of when discussing things like braille- and to many, being “blind” implies you see nothing. This isn’t true though.
That may not always be true and there may be some trial and error, but being unsighted in a society most often tailored to the sighted and often without thought or much thought to the unsighted can have its challenges that at times could seem silly or ridiculous someone has to put up with that to handle even many “simple” tasks.
But braille still has usefulness and can be helpful, and there are those who embrace a culture of non sightedness and see braille as part of that culture and history to be preserved and carried forward.
Many unsighted children are “mainlined” into public schools that are built around sighted learning and a sighted audience and often do not have the time or resources to teach braille and it generally isn’t part of a standard universal curriculum. These children often need to find other ways to communicate and be able to do their work.
So the subject is deeper than this format allows- if you’re interested in more I’d read up on it, but to be clear, I am not saying braille is pointless or dying or obsolete or anything if that nature, I’m just stating that braille, like anything, has it’s strengths and weaknesses and works well in some circumstances and less in others.