Radio Station Challenges Readability of New Braille T-Shirts

August 5, 2004 -- An upstart young company called notvanilla recently exposed its new line of braille t-shirts to an unsuspecting public. The shirts feature naughty expressions across the chest, printed in braille using raised rubberized ink.

Sig and Vydra of the "Afternoon Train Wreck" on radio station 1067 The End in New Orleans, Louisiana heard about the t-shirts and decided to challenge their readability. The radio personalities called for two volunteers to come forward from their audience; a woman who would wear one of the naughty braille t-shirts, and a man who was blind. This was to be the definitive "chest test"; notvanilla's t-shirts were certainly attracting a lot of media and public attention, but could the titillating braille expressions actually be read by someone who was blind? Were the t-shirts functional, as well as being fun and fashionable?

The courageous young female volunteer endured ten minutes of the dots on her chest being felt, before the gentleman who was blind could properly interpret her shirt. This was attributed purely to the inordinately large size of the braille dots.

Less adventurous people will be relieved to know that the braille t-shirts (available at www.notvanilla.us) incorporate an "anti-grope feature"; a readable translation of the braille, printed inside the shirt along the bottom hem. The shirt can be "flipped up and flashed" to reveal the translation, and prevent or stop a grope. All around, everyone agreed that this was the feel-good event of the summer.

Still photos of the test can be viewed at www.notvanilla.us

For more information or for interviews:

Pete Pallett
pete@notvanilla.us
604-730-8576 (5am-9pm PST Monday through Saturday)





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