You know it’s got dots, you probably know the dots are raised (the worrying number of ‘braille fails’ on signage out there means we can’t take that for granted, sadly), and you know it’s one way that blind and partially sighted people can read. But there’s much more to braille than that.
1. Braille is a code, not a language, and was invented by Louis Braille while he was still a teenager. He adapted a system used by soldiers to communicate in the dark, which used a box of twelve dots (two across and six down) to stand for sounds. Louis spent four years improving the system so that it used just six dots (two across and three down – like the dots on a dice) and each character represented a letter, number or punctuation mark, instead of a sound.
2. Today there are braille codes for more than 130 languages, and specialist braille codes for maths and music. In the UK, we use UEB (Unified English Braille) (which replaced Standard English Braille, or SEB). UEB can be used for both literary and technical subjects, so students no longer need to learn a separate code for maths and science. Some specialist codes, for example, for chess and music, still remain.
3. UEB can be uncontracted (grade 1) or contracted (grade 2). In uncontracted braille each symbol represents a letter, number or punctuation mark; in contracted braille, there are extra symbols to represent ‘contractions’ (like ‘ch’, ‘st’, or ‘ing’), or to represent whole words (‘and’, ‘for’, or ‘with’). Short combinations of letters can represent much longer words – ‘brl’ for ‘braille’, ‘fr’ for ‘friend’, ‘qk’ for ‘quick’; and many of the letters of the alphabet can stand in for common words – ‘b’ for ‘but’, ‘h’ for ‘have’, and ‘t’ for that.
4. The six-dot shape of each braille character is called a braille cell, with the dots numbered vertically from one to six, with one being top left and six being bottom right. Including spaces (an empty braille cell), there are 64 braille characters.
5. Braille has indicator characters to show where capitals, bold, italics, and underlines are used. Braille uses the first ten letters of the alphabet combined with a numeric indicator (dots 3, 4, 5, and 6 – looking like a backwards 'L') to represent numbers.
6. There are several ways to produce braille, including a hand frame, a Perkins brailler (often called a braille typewriter), and embossers. A hand frame has dozens of small holes to guide the user to produce standard braille. The writer will press a style into the holes to produce raised dots in thick cartridge paper – however they usually have to work backwards or the braille will come out the wrong way around (a bit like mirror writing!). If you have an upward writing frame with a hollow-ended stylus that raises dots, you can work from left to right, however these are less common.
There is now a paperless slate, the Versa, which is also erasable, and can be used for taking notes on the go. Like a traditional slate, you work backwards with a style, but you push through plastic dots instead of making dots on paper, and can wipe the slate clean to re-use.
A Perkins brailler has six main keys (plus a space bar) – one for each dot in the braille cell – and users type the necessary combination to produce braille (for example, pressing keys 1, 2, and 3 will produce an ‘l’). Because the braille is embossed from beneath the paper, users do not have to work backwards
Embossers are usually found where large quantities of braille are required, for example, a school that specialises in teaching children with vision impairment.
7. Hard copy braille is still popular, but now people can read braille using a refreshable display from a digital file (BRF) too. Both have their place – a device with refreshable braille (dots that pop up and down as the reader moves through the text) can make books and documents much more portable, while hard copy is easier to read with two hands and is easier to move around in (if you want to jump back to a previous page, for example).
Technological advances mean you can now buy multi-line braille devices, like the Dot Pad X, which allow for the creation of graphics as well as braille.
8. You may hear the argument that braille isn’t necessary in a digital age, where computers and smart phones can read text on screens out loud, but braille literacy is still incredibly useful for children with vision impairment. Reading braille is more immersive than synthetic speech and allows for more precision, it also teaches spelling and grammar.
9. It's not just books, signage and packaging for medicine that can be brailled – RNIB produces radio and TV listings and leisure magazines in braille, and you can find braille on board games, playing cards, pill organisers and greetings cards.
10. Sighted people can learn to sightread braille. You can teach yourself uncontracted (grade 1) braille using our free braille alphabet card or our A3 braille poster. Most of the braille you’ll encounter on signs will be uncontracted to make it accessible to as many people as possible.
If you catch the braille bug, you can learn contracted (grade 2) braille using our self-study course. The year-long course has two intakes each year, in May and October – applications need to be received by mid-April and mid-September, respectively.
[You can learn more about Louis Braille in the illustrated book Little People, Big Dreams: Louis Braille, which has had braille added to it (contracted and uncontracted), and goes on sale to mark his birthday.]
