Fact Check

Do Steering Wheels Include Braille So Visually Impaired Drivers Can Find the Horn?

"Just realized that these little bumps on the steering wheel are in Braille."

Published Jan. 14, 2019

 (Shutterstock)
Image courtesy of Shutterstock
Claim:
Car steering wheels include Braille to help visually impaired drivers find the horn.

In mid-January 2019, a meme spread online stating the steering wheels of some automobiles were outfitted with Braille, the tactile written language, so that visually impaired motorists could locate their car horns:

This concept is simply an old joke that has been circulating online for years now. The raised dots seen in the image above in fact don't resemble a configuration of any letters in the Braille alphabet:

In case readers need further evidence that the dots in the meme do not spell out the word "horn" or anything similar, here is how the word is translated in Braille:

Sources

William Pennmanship.   "Ford to Install Braille on Steering Wheel Controls."     28 September 2009.

Quora.   "Why Are There Little Bumps Over a Steering Wheel?"     Accessed 14 January 2019.

Bethania Palma is a journalist from the Los Angeles area who has been working in the news industry since 2006.