Braille on bathrooms?

Today at work I had the time to consider something that has long vexed me, and what is surely one of the most profoundly idiotic of all human (attempts at an) accommodation: Braille on bathroom doors.  What does this small gesture signify about us as a species?  Do we believe that if a blind person walks into an establishment the sighted would quickly shush themselves and stare, covering their mouths to silence the giggles as this person called out in vain?  And then, after minutes or, God forbid, hours, of desperate tactile searching the poor individual’s seemingly hopeless scouring of the wall would at long last yield the raised symbols of salvation?  What other possible explanation for this bizarre phenomena could there be?  Another potential scenario: perhaps the blind person carries out his/her intended business and then asks for directions to the bathroom.  Does the employee then respond with, “poke around, you’ll find it.  It’s marked.”  Perhaps it’s merely an arrogant reminder to those of us blessed with sight that we do not need help finding the bathroom.  And why isn’t anything else labeled?  Is the bathroom some kind of blind person’s compass rose from which they are expected to orient themselves around the building?  “Let’s see, if the bathroom is there, then the ice cream must be…”  Nowhere near the bathroom, that’s where the fuck the ice cream is, and you deserve better than that.

Insensitive?  Hardly.  I didn’t put Braille on bathrooms.