Braille Facts
- What is Braille?
- What Does Braille Look Like?
- How Was Braille Invented?
- How Is Braille Written?
- Types of Braille
What is Braille?
Braille is a series of raised dots that can be read with the fingers by people who are blind, visually impaired, or deafblind. Teachers, parents, and others who are not visually impaired ordinarily read Braille with their eyes.
Braille is not a language. It is a code by which all languages may be written and read. Braille is now used in almost every country in the world and has been adapted to almost every known language, from Albanian to Zulu.
Braille codes have also been developed to represent the many symbols used in advanced mathematical and technical material, musical notation, and shorthand.
What Does Braille Look Like?
Braille symbols are formed within units of space known as
Braille cells. A full Braille cell consists of six raised dots arranged in
two parallel vertical rows, each having three dots. The dot positions are
identified by numbers one through six. Sixty-three combinations are
possible using one or more of these six dots. Cells can be used to
represent a letter of the alphabet, number, punctuation mark, or even a
whole word.
How Was Braille Invented?
At the school Louis Braille attended, students were taught basic craftsman skills and simple trades. They were also taught how to read by feeling raised letters.
The raised letters were made using paper pressed against copper wire. The students never learned to write. In addition, the letters weighed a lot and whenever people published books using this system, they put together a book with multiple stories in one in order to save money. This made the books exteremly heavy, sometimes they weighed over a hundred pounds.
The school Louis Braille attended only had 14 books. Louis had read every book.
In 1821,Charles Barbier, a Captain in the French Army, visited the school to show the children his invention, called "Night writing." This was a code of 12 raised dots and a number of dashes that let soldiers share top-secret information on the battlefield without having to speak.
Louis felt that this raised dot system was much more practical then the raised letter system being used at his school. However, the "Night writing" was also cumbersome. He modified the number of raised dots to six to form the Braille system used today.
How Is Braille Written?
When every letter of every word is expressed in Braille, it is referred to as Grade 1 Braille. Many newly blinded adults find Grade 1 Braille useful for labeling personal or kitchen items. Books or other reading materials can also be transcribed in Grade 1 Braille.
The system often used for reproducing textbooks and publications in English is known as Grade 2 Braille. In this system, cells are used individually or in combination with others to form a variety of contractions or whole words. For example, in Grade 1 Braille, the phrase "you like him" requires 12 cell spaces.
If it were written in Grade 2 Braille, this same phrase would use only six cell spaces. The letters Y and L are also used for the whole words "you" and "like" respectively. Similarly, the word "him" is formed by combining the letters H and M.
There are 189 different letter contractions and 76 short-form words used in English Grade 2 Braille. These shortcuts reduce the volume of paper needed for reproducing books in Braille and make reading faster.
Just as printed matter can be produced with paper, pencil, typewriter, or printer, Braille can also be written in several ways. The Braille equivalent of paper and pencil is the slate and stylus. The slate, or template, has evenly spaced depressions for the dots of the Braille cells. The stylus is used to create the individual Braille dots. With paper placed in the slate, tactile dots are made by pushing the pointed end of the stylus into the paper over the depressions. The paper bulges on its reverse side to form dots. Because they are easy to carry, the slate and stylus are especially helpful for taking notes during meetings and for labeling. Braille is also produced by a machine known as a Braille writer. Unlike a typewriter, which has more than 50 keys, the Braille writer has only six keys and a space bar. These keys are numbered to correspond with the six dots of a Braille cell. Since most Braille cells contain more than a single dot, all or any of the Braille writer keys can be pushed at the same time. Computers provide and continue to expand additional avenues of literacy for Braille users. Software programs and portable electronic Braille note takers allow users to save and edit their writing, have it displayed back either verbally or tactually, and produce a hard copy via a desktop computer-driven Braille embosser.
Since its development in France by Louis Braille in the early 19th century, Braille has become an effective means of communication and a proven avenue for achieving and enhancing literacy for people who are blind, visually impaired, or deafblind.
Types of Braille
Braille allows for flexibility that was not available by any other tactile system developed for people who couldn’t read conventional print. Initially, Braille consisted of the representation of print letters and punctuation. But this was still not compact enough nor met the needs of all conventional print requirements. Today, Braille code primarily consists of the following types:
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Grade 1: composed of the alphabet letters, numbers, and punctuation marks
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Grade 2: includes all of Grade 1 Braille plus nearly 200 "contractions" that are representations of groups of letters or whole words
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Grade 3: contains more contractions than Grade 2 Braille and is generally used for personal notetaking
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Nemeth Code of Braille Mathematics and Scientific Notation: Braille notation for science and math (Introduction to Nemeth Code)
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Music Code: music notation (Learn about Braille Music Code)
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Braille Computer Code: reflects characters used by computers, primarily used by programmers and users of assistive computer technology
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