that is a weird choice since less than 10% of VI people use braille.

That makes me think of braillewriters, like a Perkins Brailler.

I’ve never heard that used as a word for people before- very odd. Especially odd bc most visually impaired people don’t read braille.

Never heard this term for a visually impaired or blind person before. I hear the term brailler and think of a braille display.

its no more derogatory than calling people who like skateboards skateboarders. its easier to call someone a "brailler" than to say "someone who uses brail".

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i understand your concern but at the same time i kind of wish the PC police would stop looking for things to be offended about.

It's not offensive, just kind of silly. There's no reason that they couldn't have just said "braille and print users" instead of "braillers and print users". It's like calling a sighted person a printer. While it's not crazy, it's weird and uses a word for something that already exists.

It's weird given the context. It's not offensive, it just makes the author sound uninformed. If they're insulting anyone, it's themselves.

As to the article you mentioned, link? Was the author talking about totally blind people and the way we read, or just referring to visual impairment generally?

I still have my Perkins Brailler from like 1980 or something built before I was born and it still works well, haven't had to get it replaced or anything.

That’s strange but now I want to read tbe article.

A brailler or braille writer is a machine used to emboss brail onto thick, almost card stock like paper. There are six keys forming the dots of a braille cell with a space bar in the middle. At the far left is your next line key and at the far right is the backspace. There is a carriage above the keys but still on the front side. This advances normally as you type, and must be pulled back to the stop at the end of a line. There are two margins to set where the start of the line is and the end. A bell is attached to the rightmost margin so that you know when you must stop and advance to the next line.

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The top of the machine nearest the front really only has the handle which can rotate down to a closed position. There is a gap between the front and top where you can see the paper. Following the top piece around it's curve, you'll encounter the paper or the flat surface of the rear most part of the top. Feeling around, you will also encounter the head which is the mechanism that handles how the dots are pressed. The only other thing of note on the top are two levers which move together. This is how you lift up the mechanism to let you load in paper. You pull them towards you, load in the paper and push them away from you until they stop.

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At the back, you will find the margins. You squeeze the bottom part up to the top and move them where you need them. There is also another one at the left which is less of a margin and more of a stop for whether you're using standard or wide paper. You unscrew this enough to allow it to move, then move it and tighten it again. There is nothing more of note on the back.

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The only thing of interest on the sides are the rollers for rolling the paper to the top. As described before, you pull two levers on the top to load the paper in, then push them to the stops. You are then able to roll towards you using the rollers on each side until they stop, then you lock it in with one press of the advance line key. It will not depress fully, and it will give a click that is different from its normal action.

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Under the keys, you will find a tray. This is a good place to store a braille eraser. The eraser is a tool with a rounded end and a pointed one. If you make a mistake, you may be forced to use the eraser to fix it and write over.

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Note that this describes the old Perkins style machines. They now make electronic ones which I have no experience with. The old styles ones are all metal and weigh about 12lbs. I used to carry one from class to class when I was in school. They make quite a bit of racket as well, and if it's a class with a bunch of blind or visually impaired students all brailling at once, the noise is quite cacophonous.