What is Braille? Braille was developed by the Frenchman, Louis Braille in about 1820. The Braille system works by an arrangement of dots which make up letters of the alphabet, numbers and punctuation marks. The basic Braille symbol is called the Braille cell and consists of six dots arranged in the formation of a rectangle, three dots high and two across. Other symbols consist of only some of these six dots. The six dots are commonly referred to by number according to their position in the cell.

It took more than a century, however, before people would accept Braille as an excellent way for visually impaired people to read and write.  Experienced Braille readers read Braille at speeds comparable to print readers.  Braille readers say that the only limitation of Braille is that there isn’t enough material available.

Braille uses special characters called contractions to make words shorter. We use contractions like "don't" as a short way of writing two words, such as "do" and "not." In Braille there are many additional contractions, 189 in all! Using these contractions saves space, which is very important because Braille books are much larger and longer than print books.  Uncontracted Braille (Grade 1) is a longer version.

Below is the same phrase "you like him" Can you see the difference?

Uncontracted Braille

Contracted Braille:

The basic English Braille alphabet

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