If you have a friend guiding you, they can help indicate whether there is braille in any location.


What you do is you slam their head against a surface. If they come back with indentations on their face, you know there is braille in that spot. Then you can read it directly from the sign.

about 80 to 90% of the time I don't until someone says so. However, I count on Braille being on the washroom doors whenever possible.

I visited a school that had placed the sign for the main office over the door... as in 7 ft high. It had braille on it.

It depends on what the signage is. Often, the braille is near a corresponding sign. Signage to indicate room numbers are usually next to the door, while bathrooms can be next to or on the door itself. Some buildings have better (and more consistent) signage placement, but not always.

If I know there's probably going to be braille somewhere, I'll feel around for it. But I'm not just going to touch every possible surface in the hope that there'll be braille. For example, part of my city has braille signage to indicate roads, but it's only in one area of the city.

We don't. Reliance on preconceptions of where Braille should be is the best way to go until you know for sure what place has Braille. In the US, any school, corporate, or government building worth their weight in ADA lawsuit money will have Braille signage beside and/or on doors. Lifts, being accessibility devices, will almost certainly have Braille. Restroom signage is also a good bet for finding Braille. Other than that, it's kind of a toss-up.

In the US, there are specifications for where the braille should be, for example, a certain height and distance from the door frame. There are certain situations where there is almost certainly braille which gets read often. Hotel room numbers, men and women restrooms, and elevator buttons are typically all in predictable spots. Other braille, like the ‘how to change your baby’ directions on the changing table in the bathroom and ‘in case of fire use stairs’ signs are more to meet the building standard than actual functional braille that people need to read.

I don't read Braille (yet. I'm working on it.)

But I never got this either. What am I supposed to do, feel every wall in the building?

I think in reality the idea is that it's good for people who have enough sight to see the sign is the but not enough to easily read it. That can happen, sight problems can be incredibly specific. Mainly it's helpful on elevator buttons and stuff though, and I can use that.