The Braille Alphabet

History Of Braille

Braille Scripts

The Braille system was devised by Frenchman Louis Braille, in 1821. It is a method of reading and writing through touch, by those who are blind or visually impaired. The Braille system was based on a method of communication originally developed by Charles Barbier, in response to Napoleon's demand for a code which soldiers could use in order to communicate silently, and without the use of illumination at night, otherwise referred to as night writing.

However, Barbier's system was unfortunately too complex for soldiers to learn, and was consequently rejected by the military. In 1821, he visited the National Institute for the Blind in Paris, where he met Louis Braille. Braille identified the major failing of the code, which was that the human finger could not encompass the whole symbol without moving, and so could not move rapidly from one symbol to another. His modification was to use a six dot cell, as in the Braille system known today, which revolutionized written communication for the blind.

Approximately 600 years before the invention of Braille, a Syrian Muslim had created his own system, personal to his particular needs. The distinguished blind Arab professor, Zain-Din al Amidi, in the 14th century, improvised a method by which he identified his books, and made notes. Although he was blind soon after birth, he led a very studious life, interesting himself particularly in jurisprudence, and foreign languages.

Each braille character, or "cell", is made up of six dots, arranged in two vertical rows of three. A single dot may be raised at any of the six positions, forming a total of 64 different combinations of dots, (including the combination in which no dots are raised, that representing a space). For reference purposes, a particular combination may be described by naming the positions where dots are raised, the positions being universally numbered: 1 2 3, from top to bottom, on the left; and 4 5 6, from top to bottom, on the right. For example: dots 1-3-4 would describe a cell with three dots raised, at the top and bottom in the left column, and at the top of the right column, (i.e., the letter “m”). Each character or word which is raised, are then separated by a space, or a blank cell, as is also the case in print.

Braille may be produced by using a "slate" and a "stylus", in which each dot is created from the back of the page, writing in mirror image, by hand. More commonly now, it may be produced on a Braille typewriter or "Perkins Brailler", or by a Braille embosser, attached to a computer, where the embosser can be programmed to produce the Braille equivalent of computer text. Braille may also be rendered using a refreshable braille display, where a number of cells are already prepared, and where the dots appear when a key or keys are pressed.

Today, different Braille codes are used to map character sets of different languages, to the six dot cells. Similarly, different Braille codes are also used for different subject purposes, such as in mathematics and music, where many of the symbols adopt a whole new identity. However, due to the fact that the six dot Braille cell only offers 64 possible combinations, many Braille characters have different meanings according to their context. In addition to simple encoding, modern Braille transcription uses “contractions”, or abrieviations, similar to that of shorthand, in order to increase reading speed, and to reduce the amount of space required on a page.

Large Cell Braille, more commonly known as Jumbo Braille, is an alternative way of reading and writing, and is used by those who have difficulty in using standard Braille. The dot combinations are the same as those used in traditional Braille, and the dots themselves remain the same size, except that the spacing between dots and cells is increased somewhat, over a larger area.

Encoding, As originally conceived by Louis Braille, a sequence of characters, using the top 4 dots of the cell, represents letters “a-j”. Dot 3 is then added to these, representing letters “k-t”. Both dots 3 and 6 are added to the letters “a-e”, representing “u, v, x, y, and z”. The letter “w” is an exception to the pattern, as the French did not make use of the letter "w" at the time Louis Braille devised his alphabet, thus, he had no need to encode it.

English Braille codes the letters and punctuation, plus some double letter signs, and word signs directly, but capitalisation and numbers are dealt with by using a prefix symbol. For example: letters “a-I”, following the prefix of dots 3, 4, 5, and 6, represent the numbers 1-9,; “j” being 0. In practice, Braille produced in the United Kingdom does not use the capital letter sign, dot 6, as this increases the amount of paper required, and may also unnecessarily complicate reading in larger volumes of text.

Braille characters are much larger than their printed equivalents, and the standard 11 by 11.5, (28 cm × 30 cm) page, has room for only 25 lines of 43 characters. In order to reduce space, and increase reading speed, virtually all Braille books are transcribed in what is known as Grade 2 Braille, which uses a system of contractions for reducing space, and to speed the reading process. As with most human linguistic activities, Grade 2 Braille embodies a complex system of customs, styles, and practices. The Library of Congress's Instruction Manual for Braille Transcribing runs to almost 200 pages. Braille transcription is highly skilled work, and transcribers are required to pass certification tests before they commit to providing the service, so to ensure the quality and legibility of the transcriptions.

In English, the system of Grade 2 Braille contractions begins with a set of 23 words, each beginning with a letter of the alphabet, which are contracted to single characters. Thus, the word “but”, is contracted to the single letter “b”, “can” to “c”, “do” to “d”, and so on. Even this simple rule creates issues requiring special cases. For example: the letter “d” is specifically an abbreviation of the verb “do”; the noun “do” representing the first note of the musical scale is a different word, and must therefore be spelled out. It must also be noted, these convenient word signs cannot be used in the same context when that combination of letters appears within a word, and must be spelled out also.

Portions of words may also be contracted, and many rules govern this process. For example: the character with dots 2-3-5, (the letter "f" appearing lower in the Braille cell), stands for "ff" when used in the middle of a word; at the beginning of a word, this same character represents the word "to", although the character is written in Braille with no space following it; at the end of a word, the same character stands for an exclamation mark.

The contraction rules take into account the linguistic structure of the word; thus, contractions are not to be used when their use would alter the usual Braille form of a base word to which a prefix or suffix has been added. In addition, some portions of the transcription rules are not fully codified, and rely on the judgement of the transcriber. Thus, when the contraction rules permit the same word in more than one way, preference is given to the contraction that more nearly approximates correct pronunciation.

Though Braille is thought to be the main way blind people read and write, in Britain, out of the reported 2 million visually impaired population, it is estimated that only around 15-20 thousand people use Braille. Younger people are turning to electronic text on computers instead, a more portable and convenient communication method, which they can also use with their friends and colleagues. A debate has started on how to make Braille more attractive to potential users, and for more experienced teachers to be made available to teach it.