Braille Basics History of Braille

„ Developed by Louis Braille

„ 1809—Born near Paris, France

„ 1813—Lost his vision

„ 1819—Attended Parisian blind school

„ 1821—Charles Barbier introduced 12-dot “Night Writing”

„ 1827—First Braille book published Braille Overview

„ Uncontracted (formerly Grade One) Braille consists of the 26-letter alphabet, numbers, and punctuation.

„ Contracted (formerly Grade Two) Braille adds 189 contractions and short-form words. Braille Cell

„ All Braille characters are based on six dots called a Braille cell. 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). K through T

„ The next 10 letters of the alphabet are made by adding dot three to the first 10 letters. 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. Braille Alphabet That’s nice, but…

„ How do we remember the alphabet? Braille and Print

„ You already know the print alphabet, and the Braille letters look like the print letters.

„ Let’s connect the dots! Standard Braille Alphabet Connect the Dots Numbers

„ Braille uses a special sign (dots 3-4-5-6) to show that what follows is a number.

„ Logically, this sign is called…the number sign! 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 Numbers in Literary Braille

„ 1 = ⠼⠁ „ 6 = ⠼⠋

„ 2 = ⠼⠃ „ 7 = ⠼⠛

„ 3 = ⠼⠉ „ 8 = ⠼⠓

„ 4 = ⠼⠙ „ 9 = ⠼⠊

„ 5 = ⠼⠑ „ 0 = ⠼⠚ Multidigit Numbers

„ 12 = ⠼⠁⠃ „ 63 = ⠼⠋⠉

„ 25 = ⠼⠃⠑ „ 74 = ⠼⠛⠙

„ 30 = ⠼⠉⠚ „ 87 = ⠼⠓⠛

„ 46 = ⠼⠙⠋ „ 99 = ⠼⠊⠊

„ 51 = ⠼⠑⠁ „ 101 = ⠼⠁⠚⠁ More Information

„ Braille references

„ BANA

„ www.brailleauthority.org