[1] Introduction

Braille is a reading and writing system that uses patterns of raised dots that can be felt by the reader rather than written symbols.. Because of this, Braille can be used by blind people, and may also be useful to others who work in dark or otherwise difficult environments.

Each Braille symbol is made up of up to 6 dots arranged rather like the dots on dominoes. The left-hand 3 dots are numbered 1, 2 and 3, while the right-hand column of 3 are called dots 4, 5 and 6. A Braille user will describe one of the symbols as consisting of dots (number, number, number...).

There is good logic built into the Braille symbols. For example, the letters A to J follow the same basic pattern as letters K to T, the difference being that the letters K to T all have an extra dot, dot 3, the bottom left-hand corner dot.

Again, the letters from U onwards follow the same pattern, but have both dots 3 and 6, i.e., the 2 bottom dots, added. The exception here is the letter W, which didn't exist in the original French code, and had to be added for English Braille.

At least part of the credit for inventing Braille goes to the man after whom the system is named, Louis Braille (1809-1852). While Louis was at a school for blind people, a former soldier named Charles Barbier visited and shared his invention called "night writing," a code of 12 raised dots that let soldiers share top-secret information on the battlefield without even having to speak. While the original 12-dot code was too hard to learn, and too difficult to feel with a fingertip, Louis realised that a 6-dot code along the same lines could be easily learned by blind people. He worked at improving the code for the next 3 years, and at the age of 15, published it.

Braille code was not an overnight hit, however, and the establishment did not accept it during Louis Braille's lifetime. This did not stop Louis developing the code further to encompass mathematical and musical symbols.

Then in 1868, a group of British men began to spread the word about Braille. The group of men gave rise also to the RNIB (Royal National Institute for the Blind).

Braille has now spread to most countries, though of course, inserting a W was only the first of many, many adaptations to accommodate different languages.

Braille enables people to carry out such activities as private reading, labelling objects and finding their way in public places.

Computers have made the task of transcribing into and back from Braille very much easier. Text can be read on a refreshable Braille display, enabling blind users to read web pages and other documents. Braille printers have also become easier to obtain.

The same computer technology may be contributing to the downturn in the numbers of Braille users as many blind people are content to read print through scanners and screen reading speech programs. More blind children are being educated in mainstream schools, and it does seem that they are not being taught Braille in the way that previous generations were.

Recent UK research suggests that about 20,000 regular Braille users exist among a visually impaired population of about 2 million. So it seems that Braille's future is very uncertain. This does not stop Braille being a valuable means of communication for those who know it.