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Issued: May 2006
Braille is a system of touch reading and writing in which raised dots represent the letters of the alphabet. Braille also contains equivalents for punctuation marks and provides symbols to show letter groupings.
Braille is read by moving the hand or hands from left to right along each line. Both hands are usually involved in the reading process, and reading is generally done with the index fingers. The average reading speed is about 125 words per minute, but greater speeds of up to 200 words per minute are possible.
By using braille, blind people can review and study the written word. They can become aware of different conventions such as spelling, punctuation, paragraphing, and footnotes.
Most of all, blind individuals can have access to a wide range of reading materials—educational and recreational reading and practical manuals. Equally important are the contracts, regulations, insurance policies, directories, appliance instructions, and cookbooks that are part of daily adult life. Also through braille, blind people can pursue hobbies and cultural enrichment with such materials as music scores, hymnals, playing cards, scrabble boards, and other games.
Various other methods had been attempted over the years to enable blind people to read, many of them raised versions of print letters. It is generally accepted that the braille system has succeeded because it is based on a rational sequence of signs devised for the fingertips, rather than imitating signs devised for the eyes. In addition, braille can be written by blind people and can be used for any notation that follows an accepted sequence, such as numerals, musical notes, or chemical tables.
The system of embossed writing invented by Louis Braille gradually came to be accepted throughout the world as the fundamental form of written communication for blind individuals, and it remains basically as he invented it.
Braille has undergone continuing modification, particularly the addition of contractions representing groups of letters or whole words that appear frequently in a language. The use of contractions permits faster braille reading and helps reduce the size of braille books, making them less cumbersome.
Several groups have been established over the last century to modify and standardize the braille code. A major goal is to develop easily understood contractions without making the code too complex.
The official braille code, entitled English Braille, American Edition, was published by the former Braille Authority, now the Braille Authority of North America (BANA). BANA represents many agencies and consumer groups and has been responsible for updating and interpreting the basic literary braille code and the specialized codes for music, mathematics, textbook format, and other codes in the United States and Canada. Other countries have similar authorities.
A blind eleven-year-old boy took a secret code devised for the military and saw in it the basis for written communication for blind individuals. Louis Braille, newly enrolled at the National Institute of the Blind in Paris, spent nine years developing and refining the system of raised dots that has come to be known by his name.
The original military code was called night writing and was used by soldiers to communicate after dark. It was based on a twelve-dot cell two dots wide by six dots high. Each dot or combination of dots within the cell stood for a letter or a phonetic sound. The problem with the military code was that the human fingertip could not feel all the dots with one touch.
Louis Braille created a reading method based on a cell of six dots. This crucial improvement meant that a fingertip could encompass the entire cell unit with one impression and move rapidly from one cell to the next.
Braille himself was blind from the age of three. He was born in the village of Coupvray near Paris on January 4, 1809. One day he was playing with a sharp instrument belonging to his father, a harness maker. The child accidently prodded one eye with the tool and developed an eye infection causing total blindness.
Until 1819, Braille attended the local village school, where his superior mental abilities put him at the head of his class. He received a scholarship to the National Institute of the Blind, where he was the youngest student. Soon afterward, he began the development of the embossed code. In 1829 he published the code in Procede pour Ecrire les Paroles, la Musique et la Plain-Chant au Moyen de Points, which also contained a braille music code based on the same six-dot cell.
Even after he had developed his system for reading and writing, Braille stayed on at the institute as an instructor. Eventually an incessant cough made it impossible for him to lecture and he had to return to Coupvray.
He died there at the age of forty-three, and was buried in the family plot in the village cemetery. In 1952, on the centennial of his death, his body was ceremoniously transferred to the Pantheon in Paris. A monument to Louis Braille stands in the main square of Coupvray.
The braille cell, an arrangement of six dots, is the basic unit for reading and writing braille. Sixty-three different patterns are possible from these six dots.
For purposes of identification and description, these dots are numbered downward 1-2-3 on the left and 4-5-6 on the right:
1 o o 4 2 o o 5 3 o o 6
[Note: As shown here, the "o" symbol represents a raised braille dot in the six-cell configuration. The "-" symbol represents a position in the cell where no braille dot occurs.]
The first ten letters of the alphabet (a-j) use only the dots in the upper two rows of the cell.
a b c d e f g h i j
o - o - o o o o o - o o o o o - - o - o
- - o - - - - o - o o - o o o o o - o o
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The next ten letters of the alphabet (k-t) are formed by adding dot 3 to each of the first ten letters.
k l m n o p q r s t
o - o - o o o o o - o o o o o - - o - o
- - o - - - - o - o o - o o o o o - o o
o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o -
The remaining letters (except for w) are formed by adding dots 3 and 6 to each of the first five letters.
u v x y z w
o - o - o o o o o - - o
- - o - - - - o - o o o
o o o o o o o o o o - o
The letter w is an exception because the French alphabet did not contain a w when the code was created; the symbol for w was added later.
All over the United States, dedicated volunteers are working in their communities, producing braille materials for blind people. These volunteer-produced materials serve to supplement the books and magazines produced in quantity by nonprofit organizations for the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) of the Library of Congress. These volunteers have all completed a lengthy, detailed course of braille transcribing, resulting in the award by the Library of Congress of a certificate of proficiency in the appropriate braille code. Volunteer activities include transcribing print material into braille, duplicating copies, and binding braille books. These volunteers provide blind people in their communities with essential materials that would otherwise be unavailable.
Volunteer services are used by state departments of special education, local school systems, NLS, and the nationwide network of cooperating libraries that distributes books and magazines through the NLS program. The National Braille Association (NBA), an organization of volunteers, provides students and other individuals with requested braille materials.
Brailling is a skill requiring training, intellectual curiosity, patience, meticulousness, and the abilities to work under pressure and to understand and follow directions. Volunteers report a great sense of accomplishment in learning a completely new system of reading and writing.
For additional information about volunteer braille services and how to obtain copies of the braille codes, visit the Braille Development Section web pages.
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Posted on 2009-01-05