BAR1142: Advanced Braille

In this topic, you will be introduced to the concept of English Braille and different types of Braille

Braille is a tactile method of reading and writing for blind people. It was developed by Louis Braille (1809–1852) (REB, 2020). He was a blind Frenchman. It is made of six dots of the Braille cell, configured in 64 possible combinations (including the space which has no dots). Excluding the space, the remaining 63 Braille characters with dots are grouped in a table of seven lines. This table is used to establish "Braille order" for listing braille signs.

 English Braille, also known as Grade 2 Braille. It consists of approximately 250 Braille letters used in English, numerals, punctuation, formatting marks, contractions, and abbreviations.  Some English Braille letters, such as      correspond to more than one letter in print.  English Braille has three levels of complexity: Grade 1 is the actual transcriptions of printed English alphabet and is used primarily in basic literacy. Grade 2 uses many contractions and abbreviations such as    mentioned above). Grade 3 is a more advanced form of grade 2 Braille is used only in personal letters, diaries, and notes. It is a kind of shorthand, with entire words shortened to a few letters.

1.1.1 Most common types of braille

There are braille codes for writing text, music, and even technical material for math and science.  There are two forms of Text or literary Braille: non-contracted or alphabetic Braille and contracted Braille for saving space.

Alphabetic Braille is also known as Grade 1 Braille. In this type of Braille, each word and letter is written in the same way as it is in print. For example, the word “knowledge” is written using nine separate cells, one cell for each of the nine letters.

Literary Braille is also known as contracted Braille or Grade 2 Braille. In this type of Braille, contractions or abbreviations are used to represent a word or a group of letter. For example, “knowledge’’ is written in  a contracted form using only one Braille cell that stands for letter “K” to represent the entire word. Most Braille books and magazines are written in literary Braille because it takes less space than alphabetic Braille.

1.1.2 Other Types of Braille

Other types of Braille codes include the Nemeth codes, Music Braille and Unified English Braille (UEB).

The Nemeth Braille Code is used to encode mathematical and scientific notation (Nemeth, 1952). Usually, we use standard six-dot Braille cells for tactile reading. Individuals who are blind or who have low vision still need to learn mathematics. Nemeth (1952) introduced Braille version that used to transcribe mathematical equations, algebra, and calculus

Music Braille was created by the father of modern Braille (Louis Braille, who was also a musician. “Music Braille” uses combinations of the same six-dot cells as literary Braille to represent the pitch and rhythm of each note (Louis Braille, 1829).

There is a push toward Braille uniformity called Unified English Braille that was developed by the International Council on English Braille to unify the Braille codes used among English-speaking countries and to unify the Braille symbols used in literacy, numeracy and computing contexts (Simpson 2013).

1.1.3 Braille code

The Braille code was invented by Louis Braille (1809-1852), a French teacher who worked with students who were blind. It is a writing system which enables blind and partially sighted people to read and write through touch. Each Braille cell represents a letter, numeral or punctuation mark. Some frequently used words and letter combinations also have their own single cell patterns.