Braille

Braille, universally accepted system of writing used by and for blind persons and consisting of a code of 63 characters, each made up of one to six raised dots arranged in a six-position matrix or cell. These Braille characters are embossed in lines on paper and read by passing the fingers lightly over the manuscript. Louis Braille, who was blinded at the age of three, invented the system in 1824 while a student at the Institution Nationale des Jeunes Aveugles (National Institute for Blind Children), Paris.

The Frenchman Valentin Haüy was the first person to emboss paper as a means of reading for the blind. His printing of normal letters in relief led others to devise simplified versions; but, with one exception, they are no longer in use. The single exception is Moon type, invented in 1845 by William Moon of Brighton, England, which partly retains the outlines of the Roman letters and is easily learned by those who have become blind in later life. Books in this type are still in limited use by elderly people, particularly in Great Britain.

When Louis Braille entered the school for the blind in Paris, in 1819, he learned of a system of tangible writing using dots, invented several years earlier by Charles Barbier. It was called night writing and was long thought to have been intended for nighttime battlefield communications. However, Barbier’s writings suggest that he hoped the system could be used by people with visual and hearing impairments and anyone who was unable to obtain a formal education. In 1824, when Braille was only 15 years old, he developed a six-dot “cell” system. He used Barbier’s system as a starting point and cut its 12-dot configuration in half. The system was first published in 1829; a more complete elaboration appeared in 1837.

Braille characters

To aid in identifying the 63 different dot patterns, or characters, that are possible within the six-dot cell, Braille numbered the dot positions 1–2–3 downward on the left and 4–5–6 downward on the right. The first 10 letters of the Latin alphabet—a through j—are formed with dots 1, 2, 4, and 5. When preceded by the numeric indicator (dots 3, 4, 5, and 6), these signs have number values. The letters k through t are formed by adding dot 3 to the signs that represent a through j. Five of the remaining letters of the alphabet and five very common words are formed by adding dots 3 and 6 to the signs representing a through j. When dot 6 is added to the first 10 letters, the letter w and 9 common letter combinations are formed. Punctuation marks and two additional common letter combinations are made by placing the signs that represent letters a through j in dot positions 2, 3, 5, and 6. Three final letter combinations as well as the numeric indicator and two more punctuation marks are formed with various combinations of dots 3, 4, 5, and 6. Seven additional dot patterns are formed by dots 4, 5, and 6; some represent attributes such as capital letters or italics, while others are unique to Braille’s cell-based structure. Like the numeric indicator, these signs serve as modifiers when placed before any of the other signs. Through the application of this principle, the various signs can function in multiple ways. For example, dot 5 added before the sign for the letter d forms the Braille contraction for “day.”

a girl reading Braille

Braille’s system was immediately accepted and used by his fellow students, but wider acceptance was slow in coming. The system was not officially adopted by the school in Paris until 1854, two years after Braille’s death. A universal Braille code for the English-speaking world was not adopted until 1932, when representatives from agencies for the blind in Great Britain and the United States met in London and agreed upon a system known as Standard English Braille, grade 2. In 1957 Anglo-American experts again met in London to further improve the system.

In addition to the literary Braille code, there are other codes utilizing the Braille cell but with other meanings assigned to each configuration. The Nemeth Code of Braille Mathematics and Scientific Notation (1965) provides for Braille representation of the many special symbols used in advanced mathematical and technical material. There are also special Braille codes or modifications for musical notation, shorthand, and, of course, many of the more common languages of the world.

Writing Braille by hand is accomplished by means of a device called a slate that consists of two metal plates hinged together to permit a sheet of paper to be inserted between them. Some slates have a wooden base or guide board onto which the paper is clamped. The upper of the two metal plates, the guide plate, has cell-sized windows; under each of these, in the lower plate, are six slight pits in the Braille dot pattern. A stylus is used to press the paper against the pits to form the raised dots. A person using Braille writes from right to left; when the sheet is turned over, the dots face upward and are read from left to right.

Braille is also produced by special machines with six keys, one for each dot in the Braille cell. The first Braille writing machine, the Hall Braille writer, was invented in 1892 by Frank H. Hall, superintendent of the Illinois School for the Blind. A modified form of this device is still in use today, as are later, similar devices. One innovation for producing Braille is an electric embossing machine similar to an electric typewriter, and electronic computer processing is now routine.