Overview
Would you like to be able to exchange messages with a family member, client, or student who is blind? Perhaps you would like to leave a note about preparing a meal, changing an appointment, or completing an assignment. Braille is the standard form of reading and writing that people who are blind use today. Mastery and use of braille represent competence, independence, and equality. As such, they play a central role in the development of self-identity. As a sighted person, you can learn to read braille visually. In fact, this course will give you the tools to communicate in writing with your family member, client, or student who is blind. Its goal is to enable you to read and write uncontracted braille.
The course is divided into eight lessons. The first lesson briefly summarizes the history of braille and describes the existing systems of braille code. Then it lists the advantages of learning braille and describes the devices used to produce it. Lesson 2 explains how to read the letters of the alphabet in braille. Lesson 3 explains how to use the slate and stylus; Lesson 4, the braillewriter. Lessons 5 through 8 explain how to write braille letters, numbers, composition signs, and punctuation. The appendix explains the laws pertaining to the use of braille in schools and public places.
You’ll also find in your course package a video, two Quick Reference Guides, a photo of a Perkins brailler, and a Resource List. The video demonstrates the use of braille embossing tools. The Quick Reference Guides illustrate all the braille symbols introduced in this course and their print equivalents. The Resource List features providers of braille writing supplies, various published braille materials, transcriptions services, and suggested reading.
Since this is an introductory course, it will not make you fully proficient in braille. To read and write braille proficiently, additional study and practice will be necessary. This course provides the basics needed for those interested in going on to learn contracted braille. An option for further study is Hadley’s course “Contracted Braille.”
You do not need any skills or prerequisites to begin this course. Nevertheless, you do need the braille writing tools and materials that are included with this course. These include a slate and stylus, braille eraser, index cards, and supply of braille paper.
The practice activities in each lesson are for your personal development only. Therefore, do not send your answers to your Hadley instructor. You can always contact your instructor, however, to either clarify these activities or to discuss your answers. To do so, refer to the contact card that is included with your course materials.
To complete this course you are required to submit eight assignments, one at the end of each lesson. These assignments enable your instructor to measure your ability to apply the concepts presented in the lessons. Submit each assignment after completing its lesson, and wait for your instructor’s reply before sending in the next one. In this way, you can apply any corrections or comments from your instructor to subsequent lessons and assignments. If you prefer to mail your assignments, mailing labels are provided for your convenience. Otherwise, refer to the contact card that is included with your course materials for a fax number or email address.
Now, if you’re ready to start learning braille, begin Lesson 1: An Introduction to Braille.
Overview 9
Lesson 1
An Introduction to Braille
Have you ever wondered how the system of braille came to be? This lesson briefly summarizes the history of braille and describes the various braille codes. Then it lists the advantages of braille literacy and describes the devices used to produce braille. Familiarizing yourself with these topics will enable you to learn braille more easily.
Objectives
After completing this lesson, you will be able to
a. briefly describe the history of braille
b. describe the braille system of raised dots
c. list the advantages of braille literacy for a person who is blind
d. describe devices that are used to produce braille
The History of Braille
Louis Braille, for whom the system was named, was born in France in 1809. He was a saddle maker’s son who lost his vision at the age of three as a result of an accident in his father’s workshop. Young Louis was a gifted student and earned a scholarship to attend a school for blind youth in Paris. While at school, he encountered a French army captain, Charles Barbier de la Serre, who had invented a code of raised dots that enabled soldiers to read in the dark. Louis Braille studied the system and within three years simplified it to a six-dot cell system for writing words and music. His system is the braille code used today.
Louis Braille died in 1852, without the satisfaction of seeing his system widely recognized. Today, braille is used worldwide in virtually every language.
The Braille System
Braille symbols are formed within a cell. The braille cell looks much like the six on a domino: two columns of three dots. For reference purposes, the dots are universally numbered 1 through 3 from top to bottom on the first side, and 4 through 6 from top to bottom on the second side.
The Braille Cell
First Side top row 1 l l 4 Second Side
middle row 2 l l 5
bottom row 3 l l 6
Sixty-three combinations are possible using one or more of these six dots. Those symbols that you will learn in this course appear in the Quick Reference Guides that accompany your course materials.
Because the 63 possible symbols would not suffice to cover all possible print symbols, many symbols are used in more than one way, depending on the context. For example, the symbols that represent the letters a-j are used as numbers with a number sign preceding the symbol. Uncontracted braille, previously known as grade 1 braille, consists of the alphabet, numbers, punctuation, and a few composition signs. In uncontracted braille all words are spelled out letter for letter. Contracted braille, previously grade 2 braille, is similar to shorthand in print. This system of reading and writing braille uses 189 symbols to represent not only letters of the alphabet, numbers, and punctuation, but also commonly occurring words, parts of words, and combinations of letters. The majority of braille literature is written in contracted braille. Grade 3 braille is highly contracted; it is used for taking notes in academic environments or other situations where speed and brevity are very important. In addition to these codes, three other systems exist: Braille Music Notation, the Nemeth Code for Mathematics and Science Notation, and the Computer Braille Code. As explained in the Overview, this course introduces you to uncontracted braille.
The Advantages of Braille Literacy
The dictionary defines literacy as the ability to read and write. Someone who was once print literate loses functional literacy skills as his or her vision decreases. Although an individual who is blind can certainly function without using written language, braille can increase his or her independence. This is true even if the person has keyboard skills and devices that read print in synthesized speech. The more varied the ways that a person can access information, the more options he or she possesses.
Devices Used to Produce Braille
Three devices exist that can produce embossed braille: the slate and stylus, the braillewriter, and the braille embosser connected to a computer or electronic braillewriter. In addition, you can produce simulated braille that you can view on your computer monitor or print from a printer connected to a computer. Simulated braille represents the raised dots graphically for a sighted person.
Slate and Stylus
A slate and stylus is a small, portable writing tool. Think of it as the braille writer’s pencil and pad. Some people think that the slate and stylus is obsolete in the highly technological world in which we live. But think of how you use a pen or pencil. Even with small, handheld computers available, surely you are not ready to throw away pens and pencils. The slate and stylus enables a person who is blind to be independent. It does not require an electric outlet or a battery, and it goes anywhere. As a sighted person, you can also take advantage of the portability and low cost of the device by having a number of them and using them with your family member, client, or student.
The slate is a two-part metal or plastic frame connected with a hinge. The bottom part of the frame has rows of indented braille cells. When you braille with the slate, the dots come out on the other side of the paper. The top frame of the slate has matching rows of open rectangles, one rectangle fitting exactly over each braille cell. In order to emboss braille, you insert paper in between the top and bottom parts of the frame and lock it in place with small pins at each of the four corners. You make the dots with a device called a stylus. The point of the stylus pushes the paper in the slate into one of the indentations. Every time that you push into an indentation, a braille dot appears on the other side of the paper that you’re working on.
Most slates have tactile indicators to help the user locate lines and columns. These indicators are also helpful for creating columns, indenting, and outlining. On most slates, you’ll find raised indicators in the border between rows 1 and 2 and between rows 3 and 4.
Slates come in a wide variety of designs to meet various needs. Some of the more common slate designs include the following:
· The pocket slate is the most common type of slate. It has four lines of either 27 or 28 cells per line and embosses on standard 8.5-by-11-inch (21.25-by-27.5-cm) paper. This is the type of slate you received with your course materials.
· A slate with one 18-cell line is designed for making self-adhesive labels.
· An index card slate has six 22-cell lines. It does not open with hinges; rather, the user slips a 3-by-5-inch (7.5-by-12.5-cm) index card into an opening on one side.
· A cassette-tape labeler has a solid piece surrounding the top frame of braille cells. The resulting embossed braille fits the space on a cassette-tape label.
· A micro-dot slate has lines of smaller cells arranged alternately so that the user can write on both sides of the paper.
· A simple, three-celled slate is used for brailling the denomination and the suit at the corner of playing cards.
· A Brown slate has an outer frame that enables the user to drop open the bottom part of the frame and read without removing the paper.
· The jumbo-dot slate is used for those who have recently lost their sight or those who have limited tactile sensitivity. The dots are more widely spaced than in regular braille and are therefore easier to read.
· One type of slate has a small cutout at each end of row 3 to hold a piece of labeling tape in place of paper.
Styluses also come in a variety of designs. The most common type has a fat, round, wooden handle. Many styluses have one or more flat surfaces on the handle. This design prevents them from rolling away when set down. A pocket stylus has a flat handle, only one-half inch (1.25 cm) wide. It fits into a shirt pocket without making a bulge. A saddle stylus has a dip in the top of its handle that is shaped like the seat of a saddle, which some people find more comfortable to grip than the ball-type handle. One type of stylus is shaped like a pen. However, since gripping and pressing a thin, narrow object is hard on the fingers, this type is used primarily by transcribers and proofreaders who make occasional corrections.
Braillewriter
A larger, heavier, and more expensive tool than a slate and stylus is a braillewriter, which can be manual or electric. On a braillewriter, six large keys correspond to the six dots of a braille cell. These keys are designed so that you can easily rest the first, second, and third fingers of each hand on these keys. You can depress any combination of these keys or leave a blank cell by pressing a space bar that extends under both thumbs. In addition, a backspace key is located on the far right, and a paper advance, or new-line key, is on the left. Other levers, bars, and knobs are involved in inserting and removing the paper. The braillewriter is similar to a typewriter—you insert paper, punch keys, advance the paper on the roller, and finally remove the finished piece of embossed braille.
Any type of heavy paper can be inserted into the braillewriter, as well as can other materials such as magnetic labels, a sheet of self-adhesive labels, and plastic labels.
Other Devices for Producing Braille
Another method of producing braille is to use a computer connected to an embosser. Software programs make it possible to create braille electronically. Also, many people use small handheld, electronic devices called notetakers, which are designed like braillewriters. Although the feedback is through speech, many of these devices can be attached to an embosser to produce the feedback on paper. Embossers are very expensive, running from two thousand to tens of thousands of dollars.
Summary
This lesson briefly described the history of braille and the braille system of raised dots. It then discussed issues surrounding braille literacy for children and adults who are blind. Finally, the lesson described devices that are used to produce braille.
Armed with this information, you may now be more aware of braille when it is displayed in your community, in public places, at schools, or in and around other buildings. Even if you do not yet know the braille code, you will be able to note where it is needed and appreciate where it is provided. At this point you might want to read the appendix regarding laws affecting the use of braille.