What is braille?

Braille is a tactile writing language of raised dots, mainly used by the blind and visually impaired. It is developed for our haptic perception, a combination of the sense of touch, movement and finger pressure.

The dots are arranged in cells. Every cell consists of a majority of six dots in a small rectangle. A finger tip can feel the whole cell at once. The system gives 63 combinations and one blank step.

To read and write

Braille users read with one or two hands. The reader understands braille like a structure rather then individual shapes. To avoid confusion it's of great importance that all dots in the braille cell are perfectly clear.

Early in the braille development people started using short forms, contracted braille, with abbreviations not used in other written language. Index Braille software and embossers support contracted braille in many languages.

A short history of Braille

Louis Braille, the creator of braille, was a student at the first school for the blind in Paris, France. In 1821 the school tried a writing language invented by Charles Barbier de la Serre. Sonography, developed from night writing, was a system of dots and lines that Barbier invented for the military.

The young Louis Braille started perfectioning the sonography-system. His invention was presented in 1825, when he was 16 years old. Later he reduced the number of dots and lines in every cell from twelve to six. In 1837 he removed the final lines, and Braille's written language looked more or less like it does today. It would take until 1854, after Louis Braille's death, before his system was officially approved in France. It immediately started expanding.

In 1955 UNESCO declared Braille's language as the universal written language for the blind and visually impaired all over the world.
 

Human rights and braille

The declarations of the United Nations, the European Union and the United States of America state the same thing: braille readers have the right to be informed by official authorities and companies in braille - the written language they can read.