It was buried at the bottom of a help wanted ad for air traffic controllers: “If you require this document in an alternative language, in larger text, Braille, easy read or in an audio format, please contact the Community Relations Officer.”
Braille? For someone who has to keep their eyes glued to screens to make sure airplanes don’t collide?
Yep. The airport on St. Mary’s, an island that’s part of Great Britain, insists it was simply following equal opportunity procedures.
To make you feel better, international standards for air traffic controllers require them to have 20-20 vision. Correction with glasses or contacts is acceptable.
A spokeswoman for the local government, which runs the airport where the controllers are needed, says the wording is included on all job ads.
The Royal National Institute for the Blind applauds the move.
But an employee at the local radio station says they’ve had loads of calls about the ad, and people generally find it funny. “The islands are always at the cutting edge of innovation, so it would certainly be something for [us] to have the world’s first blind air traffic controller.”
