The braille system, devised in 1821 by Louis Braille, is a method that is widely used by blind people to read and write. Each braille character or "cell" is made up of six dot positions, arranged in a rectangle containing two columns of three dots each. A dot may be raised at any of the six positions to form sixty-four combinations, counting the space in which no dots are raised. For reference purposes, a particular combination may be described by naming the positions where dots are raised, the positions being universally numbered 1 through 3 from top to bottom on the left, and 4 through 6 from top to bottom on the right. For example, dots 1-3-4 would describe a cell with three dots raised, at the top and bottom in the left column and on top of the right column (ie the letter 'm').

The braille system was based on a method of communication originally developed by Charles Barbier in response to Napoleon's demand for a code that soldiers could use to communicate silently and without light at night called night writing. Barbier's system was too complex for soldiers to learn, and was rejected by the military; in 1821 he visited the National Institute for the Blind in Paris, France, where he met Louis Braille. Louis identified the major failing of the code, which was that the human finger could not encompass the whole symbol without moving, and so could not move rapidly from one symbol to another. His modification was to use a 6 dot cell — the braille system — which revolutionized written communication for the blind.

The Braille alphabet

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Braille can be seen as the world's first binary encoding scheme for representing the characters of a writing system. The system as originally invented by Braille consists of two parts

1. A character encoding for mapping characters of the French language to tuples of six bits or "dots".
2. A way of representing six-bit characters as raised dots in Braille cell.

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@joygreenmcgann Soon enough he will be reading it! Or amybe there is a twitter Braille ap in the meantine? lol
caflowergirls (Betsy) Tue, 05 Jan 2010 19:09:17 -0000
@joygreenmcgann Soon enough he will be reading it! Or amybe there is a twitter Braille ap in the meantine? lol
@MCMAXTOM @akufen Je braille de rire! As-tu checké le site d'immobilier? Déprime totale!
evemartel (Eve Martel) Tue, 05 Jan 2010 19:05:36 -0000
@MCMAXTOM @akufen Je braille de rire! As-tu checké le site d'immobilier? Déprime totale!
@OJdoherty its cool though isnt it? Are u reading it in braille or audio?
nickykealy (Nicky Kealy) Tue, 05 Jan 2010 19:02:22 -0000
@OJdoherty its cool though isnt it? Are u reading it in braille or audio?
Seedlings Braille Books for Children's 2010 Book Angel Program Register to receive 2 free books : http://www.seedlings.org/bkangel2009.php
ropard (Paula Korelitz) Tue, 05 Jan 2010 18:54:28 -0000
Seedlings Braille Books for Children's 2010 Book Angel Program Register to receive 2 free books : http://www.seedlings.org/bkangel2009.php
@OrhanD: yes I agree. But I always had my notes in braille.
daniellefoulds (daniellefoulds) Tue, 05 Jan 2010 18:52:31 -0000
@OrhanD: yes I agree. But I always had my notes in braille.
Not true! RT @saliharashid rt @OrhanD With the aim of contractions to make braille smaller and quicker to read, people lose out on spelling
mcourcel (Martin Courcelles) Tue, 05 Jan 2010 18:47:54 -0000
Not true! RT @saliharashid rt @OrhanD With the aim of contractions to make braille smaller and quicker to read, people lose out on spelling

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