Braille

A basic braille cell has six dot positions, arranged in two columns of three. Each position may be raised or left flat, creating patterns that a reader identifies with the fingertips. The cell patterns can represent letters, numerals, punctuation and other symbols; depending on the code and context, a cell or sequence can also stand for a contraction or a short-form word. Braille is not a language in itself. Rather, braille codes are used to write many spoken languages and specialized notations, including music and mathematics. Conventions differ across languages and applications.

Louis Braille, born in France in 1809, became blind as a young child and studied at the Royal Institute for Blind Youth in Paris. There, students encountered raised-print books, which were difficult to read and did not provide a practical way to write. A demonstration by the French army officer Charles Barbier introduced students to a raised-dot code for silent communication, known as night writing. Between the ages of thirteen and sixteen, Braille reworked the idea into a more compact system based on six dots, suitable for spelling and punctuation as well as other notation. He published a description of his system at age twenty, but it was not officially adopted in France until after his death. The Library of Congress records its later recognition at an international congress in 1878.

Braille is adapted to the spelling and writing conventions of individual languages. Some codes use contractions—patterns that stand for frequent letter groups or whole words—to make texts shorter; uncontracted braille writes words letter by letter. The same underlying cell principle can be extended to technical subjects and to musical notation. Readers may follow lines with one or more fingers, while writers can use tools such as a slate and stylus or a braillewriter. Electronic braille displays use movable pins to present changing text tactually, connecting braille with digital reading and writing.

Braille gives readers direct access to the written form of language, including spelling, punctuation and text layout. The National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled describes its use for educational and recreational reading and for materials such as music scores and reference works. The United Nations also recognizes braille as important to education, freedom of expression, access to information and social inclusion. In 2018, the UN General Assembly established World Braille Day, observed each 4 January—the birthday of Louis Braille—to raise awareness of braille as a means of communication.