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Braille is a code that should be read with the fingers by people who ar evisually impaired or blind - although most sighted people read it with their eyes. The Braille characters consist of a combination of one to six dots, arranged in two side-by-side columns of three dots each, forming a rectangle. The Braille dots are numbered: downward, the left column contains dots 1, 2 and 3 and the right column contains dots 4, 5 and 6. With these six dots, 63 different combinaations can be made, including the 26 alphabetical letters and some other signs.
Sometimes however, a combination of dots can mean different things depending on the context. For example, digits are formed using the same codes as the letters a to j (1 to 0) but with a number sign (dots 3, 4, 5 and 6) in front of them. There are also signs for combinations of characters or whole words. Computer Braille usually consists of eight dots instead of six: dots 7 and 8, located under dots 3 and 6, are used to indicate things like italic, upper-case etc. because on the computer italic-signs etc. don't exist.
Each language has different Braille codes. For example, in Dutch there's a specific sign for the "oe" and the "ij" diphthongs, while English Braille has signs for for example "th".
More info can be found at the following links:
Louis Braille, who's now known for inventing the Braille print, was born in Coupvray near Paris on January 4, 1809. He became blind at the age of three from an accident while playing with his father's tools. At the age of ten, he was admitted to the Paris Blind School, where he learnt to read using embossed characters.
In 1829, Louis Braille got to know a system invented by M. Charles Barbier, who was a soldier under Napoleon. The characters of this system, which the soldiers used to communicate during the night without making light or sound, consisted of combinations of 1 to 12 dots, arranged in a rectangle. Braille reduced this to a 6-dot system, which, after some modification, in 1834 got the form it has today. However, still there are made changes to the Braille code, such as the addition of signs for combinations of characters or whole words.
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Teaching Braille is not just teaching th emeaning of the Braille characters. Here are some resources for information on Braille education, interesting for educators, but also for parents and interested persons.
Braille is an important alternative technique that opens the great world of reading for blind and visually impaired people. It is equally efficient for people who are visually impaired as print is for sighted persons, and for most people with low vision, Braille is more useful than print. However, realizing this is difficult for low vision persons, parents of blind children and educators. I myself have personal experience with resisting Braille - I was seven when I started learning Braille, but I was reluctant to make the transition from print to Braille, for I viewed I could still see. More and more children are given the opportunity to learn to read using the most efficient method. Still, many adults regret never having learnt Braille as children, for they now have low literacy skills.
In 1997, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) was amended. Now, it states that visually impaired children should be taught Braille unless it's determined that it's not necessary for current or future needs. All states have a "Braille bill", which offers guidelines for how to determine whether a child shoulb learn Braille. Still, a lot of debate is going on, for school districts need to watch their money and parents often feel resistent to having their children learn Braille.
The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) has to great books on the importance of Braille available on the web: Braille Usage: Perspectives of Legally Blind Adults and Policy Implications for School Administrators and The World Under My Fingers.