xkcd and Braille

[pne]

xkcd had a comic featuring Braille:

Now I'm wondering why "ed" is contracted to dots-1246 but "gh" is not contracted to dots-126 in the word "sighted". I also wonder whether "people" doesn't have a contraction... *looks up* ah, "p" by itself.

Seeing an uncontracted "people" didn't bother me so much, since I imagine Braille on public signs tends to be relatively uncontracted since not every blind person will know Grade 2 Braille. But I wonder, then why "ed" made it in? And if "ed" is in, why not "gh"? Both signs would seem to me to be part of a reasonably "Grade 1.2 Braille" (along with other letter combinations such as "th", "ing", and "sh"), given that they have (nearly) no other meanings.

Comments

[leora.livejournal.com]

Far too often here the all capital nature of the sign is replicated in the Braille, for all of the usefulness that gives us.

Most of my Braille experience is in the bay area, it's possible it doesn't hold for much of the rest of the US. Although the restroom signs seem pretty national and are generally rendered as wom(en) or other relevant grade 2 Braille (sometimes they say "women / handicapped" or other similar things such as "restroom".