Braille Basics

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Braille Basics
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History of Braille

• Developed by Louis Braille
• 1809Born near Paris, France
• 1813Lost his vision
• 1819Attended Parisian blind school
• 1821Charles Barbier introduced12-dot Night
  Writing
• 1827First Braille book published

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Braille Overview

• Uncontracted (formerly Grade One) Braille
  consists of the26-letter alphabet, numbers, and
  punctuation.
• Contracted (formerly Grade Two) Braille adds 189
  contractions and short-form words.

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Braille Cell

• All Braille characters are based on six dots
  called a Braille cell.

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A through J

• The first 10 letters of the alphabet are made
  using the top four dots in the Braille cell (dots
  1-2-4-5).

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K through T

• The next 10 letters of the alphabet are made by
  adding dot three to the first 10 letters.

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U through Z

• The last six letters of the alphabet are created
  by adding dot 6.
• What happened to W? It was added later and does
  not quite fit the pattern.

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Braille Alphabet
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Thats nice, but

• How do we remember the alphabet?

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Braille and Print

• You already know the print alphabet, and the
  Braille letters look like the print letters.
• Lets connect the dots!

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Standard Braille Alphabet
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Connect the Dots
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Numbers

• Braille uses a special sign (dots 3-4-5-6) to
  show that what follows is a number.
• Logically, this sign is calledthe number sign!

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Letters to Numbers

• Braille uses the first 10 letters of the
  alphabet, preceded by the number sign, to stand
  for the single-digit numbers.
• a is 1, b is 2, c is 3, etc. through j,
  which is 0

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Numbers in Literary Braille

• 1 a
• 2 b
• 3 c
• 4 d
• 5 e

• 6 f
• 7 g
• 8 h
• 9 i
• 0 j

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Multidigit Numbers

• 12 ab
• 25 be
• 30 cj
• 46 df
• 51 ea

• 63 fc
• 74 gd
• 87 hg
• 99 ii
• 101 aja

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More Information

• Braille references
• BANA
• www.brailleauthority.org