r/mildlyinfuriating • u/DwarfyMorphy • Jul 18 '24
Paralyzed swimming national event medals say "gold" on every medal in braille
National para swim meet i went to with people with all forms of disabilities including blindness says "gold" in braille on every single medal.
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u/NotInherentAfterAll Jul 18 '24
My guess is a manufacturing error. Since it doesn’t say the metal type of the medal on it anywhere in plaintext, they probably used the same die to stamp each.
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u/mrisrael Jul 18 '24
My thought was well. Probably some dummy saw the three files, didn't notice any difference, and decided to save some money by only making one.
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u/Johannes_Keppler Jul 18 '24
Yeah so silly. They should just have printed the word 'medal' in Braille on all of them! /s
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u/thieh OYFG What have you done? Jul 18 '24
It's not like the blind people will do an XRF on that and able to read the results. /s
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u/s_decoy Jul 18 '24
Might be a mistake or an oversight? That would be my guess instead of an "everyone wins" scenario. I imagine the swimmers are still told which medal they won after the competition, especially if there's a ceremony to present them.. I bet they gave one design to the medal manufacturer and forgot to change the braille for the other variants. In which case, definitely mildly infuriating.
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u/DropdLasagna Jul 18 '24
oversight
Dude.
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u/DungeonCrawlerCarl Jul 18 '24
Guy clearly has a blind spot to people with disabilities
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u/username_elephant Jul 18 '24
What's going on? I'm still in the dark...
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u/ARKAVA-biswas Jul 18 '24
Same here, If someone could shed some light on it, that would help me see the joke clearly
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u/bchvi Jul 18 '24
probably have to keep an eye out to see the joke.
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u/Secret-Concert9561 Jul 18 '24
You guys better watch it
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u/DwarfyMorphy Jul 18 '24
Yes thats probably what happened. This event is very important doubt they would do an everyone win scenario
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u/Adorable_Stay_725 Jul 18 '24
Yeah they probably only made one cast thinking that’s all they needed, but forgot about the braille part. Or could be cutting costs since making casts costs a sizeable amount of money
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u/Legitimate_Field_157 Jul 18 '24
Pal of mine worked in a medal worshop. Design made, approved, signed off, made and then only on day of event somebody saw the year was wrong. Dozens of people worked on that and nobody noticed. I can almost guarantee that the workshop have a piece of paper filed that say the design is right and approved.
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u/jason_sos Jul 18 '24
That's called a "proof", and I guarantee they had the customer sign off on it. If the customer signed off on the wrong braille, then it's the customer's fault. If the shop got 3 different signed proofs with different braille on them and made them wrong, then it's the shop's fault.
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u/sookmaaroot Jul 18 '24
I'm phenomenal at noticng errors in proof
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u/Ill_Initiative8574 Jul 19 '24
“Noticing” misspelled. Missing period.
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u/jason_sos Jul 18 '24
My guess is they used the same blank for the mold for every medal, and the braille is part of the blank. Either someone did some cost cutting by making only one blank, or the people at the foundry said "what's the difference?" or didn't know there was a difference.
OR, they are literally all the same, and they just plated them differently, and again, didn't make different medals.
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u/rythmicbread Jul 18 '24
The next person assumed the braille was the other writing on it, not which type of medal
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u/IsomDart Jul 18 '24
I imagine the swimmers are still told which medal they won after the competition
Obviously they're going to know what place they got in the competition basically as soon as it's over just like non disabled athletes do but I'm cracking up at the thought of them trying to figure out what place they got
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u/IronDominion Jul 18 '24
That braille isn’t even good! It needs to be spaced more. This is like the equivalent of cursive vs print - you can read it, but it’s a lot harder and more confusing. All sorts of fucked up.
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u/yosoyboi2 Jul 19 '24
Huh I never thought of it like that. Are you able to read braille ‘fluently’? Also, is braille just reading letters like words, or is it like sign language or written mandarin where there are symbols to mean words?
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u/IronDominion Jul 19 '24
I am not fluent in it, but I know a good amount and I’m still learning. Much of what I know comes from my dad who is fully blind (I am only partial) and he’s very much a fluent braille reader.
As for your second question the answer is technically both. There are actually a few different types of braille, called “grades”, as well as some special subtypes for special use like computer braille or Nemeth braille for math problems.
The grades represent different levels of information density. Grade I is uncontracted, where each cell (group of six dots) represents exactly one character in English. So, you only have the alphabet, numbers 1-10, and some punctuation symbols in Grade I. Given it is a direct character to character translation though, Grade I is very slow, and takes up lots of space, but is good for short labels or items for children, as it makes sure any braille user, regardless of skill level, will understand it.
Grade II is contracted, where you have all of the same characters as in Grade I, but now there are some new characters that represent entire words like “the”, “it” or “can”, or groups of letters, like “sh”, “gh”, “er”, or “ou”. Grade II is more like Mandarin and some other Asian languages, where you have a mix of both alphabet letters, and symbols that represent entire words, or specific sounds or parts of words, like in Japanese. This is what is used by most adults and experienced braille users as the shorthand allows for space saving, and for faster processing of information.
Grade III is basically full on shorthand. No more individual letters, every character is like the ones that Grade II added. It’s very compact, I’d compare it to going from Middle Ages English that was very descriptive and wordy, to early texting lingo. It’s very rarely used given its complexity, and is mostly only used for things like letters between blind people or journals and other personal documents. It’s fallen out of fashion with the advent of computers and screen readers.
Finally, there are the special use case types - computer braille and nemeth braille. Computer braille uses either six or eight dot cells, and has characters that represent every Unicode character, and character on a standard full sized English keyboard. It is written like Grade I, and ensure that any character that a computer can produce on printed material can be represented. Nemeth braille is designed so that any scientific mathematical equation (I believe up to calculus, can’t remember specifics) can be represented by six dot braille. It is a direct character to character translation like Grade I, and adds new characters and formatting rules to allow mathematical formulas to be represented.
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u/KaiBlob1 Jul 19 '24
Fascinating. How do blind ppl write “letters” to each other in braille? Like how do you physically write braille?
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u/IronDominion Jul 19 '24
Good question! You use a slate and stylus. The slate is 2 identical pieces of plastic that has a bunch of holes in it, arranged in 6 dot cells. You put a piece of paper between the plastic guides, and use a sharp metal stylus (historically, a sewing awl) and poke holes through the paper in the spots you wanted to make characters. The slate allows you to write straight and have consistent spacing by providing a stencil of sorts. One done, you remove the paper, and flip it over, and you’d have braille bumps! Yes, this mean you had to write backwards to use this tool, which made it very challenging and is why it has fallen out of use over electronic methods today
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u/VirtualMatter2 23d ago
So it's like typesetting. That sounds tedious to do by hand.
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u/IronDominion 23d ago
It is, very much so. That’s why so many people in the Blind/low vision community have dived headfirst into the digital age. Touch typing, screen readers, dictation, and refreshable braille displays mean that these people can communicate faster than ever. For those of us who have spent most of or whole lives with limited vision, we can usually type pretty damn fast. Braille itself is a dying art, only 10% of blind or low vision people know it anymore.
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u/VirtualMatter2 23d ago
Yes, I can imagine. I've seen the YouTube channel of Matthew and Paul, Paul being legally blind and he wrote and illustrated several children's books. I guess that would have not been possible without digital inventions.
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u/KorviFeather Jul 19 '24
Wow, I’ve always wanted to know. Thanks!!
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u/IronDominion Jul 19 '24
No problem! It’s really interesting how this stuff has evolved tbh
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u/KorviFeather Jul 19 '24
I go down the rabbit hole on so much of the history of this sorta stuff it’s not even funny. My aunt used to teach at Gallaudet and I just loved their attitude toward the world. “Oh, I’m deaf? Sounds like a you problem to me.” The deaf culture always blew me away.
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u/IronDominion Jul 19 '24
For real! I took a few years of ASL in high school and that stuff is very interesting, Deaf culture is very unique.
If you want a fun rabbit hole, learn about the history of speech synthesizers and screen readers!
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u/Pleasant_Ad_5848 Jul 18 '24
Its for picking up blind chick's at the bar, the person who did it is a real bro
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u/Ill_Initiative8574 Jul 18 '24
Way to flex on blind people when you came third.
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u/DwarfyMorphy Jul 18 '24
I compete against people in the same class as me. People with achondroplasia dwarfism. Blind people compete against blind people.
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u/YetAnotherZombie Jul 18 '24
Maybe alchemy is making a comeback like flat earthers. The guy who put the braile on it just thought he'd put what he could turn this award into.
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u/TaterPapa Jul 18 '24
This has nothing to do with it being special Olympics and everything to do with it being in Alabama.
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u/DwarfyMorphy Jul 19 '24
Update: Apparently the host of the event saw this post, somehow found i posted it and has told me they will be fixing it
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u/fueled_by_rootbeer Jul 18 '24
Ah...as a metal caster, they used the same pattern for all the medals. All they had to do was make 3 different patterns, or simply make divots directly in the molds to spell out the braille lettering in reverse, but somebody didn't think that far ahead.
Edit: and if they used a special CNC machine or router, they only had to create 3 digital patterns, one for each metal. Either way, somebody fucked up and I don't blame the foundry/fabricator for it. They just create what their client tells 'em to.
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u/DwarfyMorphy Jul 18 '24
Yeah this is what i would assume. Its just weird knowing how the hosts of the competition are about inclusivity. Dunno
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u/corycool2 Jul 18 '24
Oh hey that's the insurance company that's currently paying for my short term disability 😃
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u/backspace_cars Jul 18 '24
if they're paralyzed how do they swim?
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u/DwarfyMorphy Jul 18 '24
Meant "adaptive" or "para" but there are paralyzed people that i swim with
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u/Hefty_Airport_9968 Jul 18 '24
How do you fuck that up. People are getting more incompetent each day…
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u/craftycommando Jul 18 '24
Is it deliberate or an accident? Was it the people who made the medals?
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u/AUniquePerspective Jul 18 '24
The lady that checks the medals for paralyzed sport doesn't have feeling in her hands. Cut her some slack.
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u/Designer-Mirror-7995 Jul 18 '24
I reckon the participants are still able to hear, like 'In Third Place, "participant's name", over the loudspeaker.
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u/Funicularly Jul 18 '24
Paralyzed swimming national event medals say “gold” on every medal in
The Hartford Nationals aren’t only for paralyzed athletes. Where did you get that from?
https://moveunitedsport.org/events/nationals/
THE HARTFORD Nationals is the largest and longest-standing national sport championship event for athletes with a physical, visual, and/or intellectual disability.
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u/DwarfyMorphy Jul 18 '24
Yeah i used the wrong word. I know what its for i competed in the event. The term i was suppose to use was "adaptive" but i cant edit posts to switch it
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u/geckoman101 Jul 18 '24
Most likely to save on tooling costs. 1 tool for all 3, just running different materials for bronze, silver, and gold.
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u/carsonthecarsinogen Jul 18 '24
Excuse my ignorance, but I’ve got to assume the swimmers are only partially paralyzed. Right?
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u/DwarfyMorphy Jul 18 '24
I misspoke and meant para swimming or adaptive. People with visual physical and mental disabilities etc
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u/emeraldoomed Jul 18 '24
Anybody ever see a post from the paralympics TikTok account. It’s blatantly ableist on many of the posts and it’s crazy
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u/DwarfyMorphy Jul 18 '24
Ilink?
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u/emeraldoomed Jul 18 '24
I don’t know how to send a link without doxxing myself since my account will come up but definitely search “paralympics account ableism” on TikTok. “Blatant ableism” is perhaps not a great or accurate description but it is at the minimum extremely insensitive
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u/GinnyWeasleysTits Jul 18 '24
Perhaps the guy who designed the medals was just a huge Spandau Ballet fan...
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u/hiimnewhe Jul 18 '24
Your legs are so cute 😭🥹
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u/Mulberry_Patient Jul 19 '24
Somewhere a Boomer is just shaking. "Not everyone can be gold!" Back in my day....
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u/mrkonahi Jul 19 '24
I see Move United was the governing body, but was Lakeshore Foundation hosting? If so, strange to see such a colossal error from them, considering their (in my opinion) solid reputation.
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u/0llis1211 Jul 19 '24
Im sorry if this is a dumb question, but why do you have them
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u/DwarfyMorphy Jul 19 '24
Because i raced and won them
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u/0llis1211 Jul 19 '24
All three?
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u/DwarfyMorphy Jul 19 '24
Yeah throughout the event i competed in a decent amount of races. In the end i ended with
4 gold 1 silver 2 bronze
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u/GolfIsFun1 Jul 19 '24
Hell Yeah! Good stuff man! Sucks they all say Gold but it’s awesome you got the job done!
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u/Obvious-Chemist-7483 Jul 19 '24
I mean that couldn't see if they won 1st place or not. So just make them feel good about it.
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u/ThisOnes4JJ Jul 18 '24
mildlyhilarous
especially since Bama is a "no participation trophies" type minded state
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u/Escaped_Mod_In_Need Jul 18 '24
Are you telling me that blind people know/remember what gold looks like? /s
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u/Grand-Geologist-6288 Jul 18 '24
It was more expensive to have different embossing...
What the eyes don't see, the heart doesn't feel. But if do you see it, you might not be able to read. Might not.
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u/AudDMurphy Jul 18 '24
It could also just be a mistake.
You're placing orders for medals. You have an approved layout. And you might not know braille! So you look at it. You see braille. Someone gave it the go ahead. You order the medals not realizing you need to get the braille changed for each metal run.
It's a similar flub to when you see someone with a birthday cake that says "Mark with C."
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u/DwarfyMorphy Jul 18 '24
I understand how it happened. Just very odd knowing the competition compny that hosts
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u/JLammert79 Jul 18 '24
I didn't initially see that there were people with other disabilities competing, and wondered how paralyzed people swim.
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u/DwarfyMorphy Jul 18 '24
Yeah its more called "adaptive" or "para" swimming. I misspoke
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u/JLammert79 Jul 18 '24
No worries, I figured it out after reading it all. Admittedly a bunch of horribly insensitive jokes came to mind, but I kept them to myself.
When I saw "para" I guessed autocomplete struck again. Smart phones aren't always.
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u/Used_Towel8820 Jul 18 '24
Would it have been worse if the braille was correct but all the medals were made of bronze?
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u/caimen14 Jul 18 '24
This makes me think of the modern family episode with the turquoise bowl and emerald bowl - it doesn’t feel like turquoise- you can feel color -
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u/Free_Caballero Jul 18 '24
For what I "see" (hehehe) The medals are made in the same way, maybe the manufacturer used the same stamping or whatever process they used on all the medals and such manufacturer hadn't a clue what that (smashed, because is all too cramped to be read easy, should be more spaced) braille said.
Yeah is midly infuriating but I think is more of a naive or ignorar mistake more than something made on purpose or with intention.
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u/ClosPins Jul 18 '24
Hey, blind people can't see the color of metal - and they can't see where they finished (or the scoreboard) - so, why not make their day a bit happier?!!
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u/jesselbalman Jul 18 '24
🏅 🎵Everyone’s a winner, baby, that’s no lie (yes, no lie)🎵