Braille Alphabet

The Braille alphabet is a tactile writing system for those who are visually impaired. It is comprised of Braille characters that are three-dimensional tactile bumps on a medium such as paper or board. The Braille alphabet was created by Louis Braille in 1821.

The alphabet, numbers and punctuation symbols are arranged in “cells” comprised of six dots positioned in two columns of three dots each. Each cell fits under a fingertip. There are 64 possible combinations, including no dots for a space in between words.

Braille is indirectly derived from the Latin alphabet. It is read left to right. It is used in several languages; French, English, Bharati, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc.

Among the blind, early braille education is crucial to literacy, education, and unemployment; however, braille usage has declined in recent decades with the emergence of changes in education policy and screen reading software.