Braille History & Resources
Braille History
- NYISE's History of Braille
- The International Council for Education of People with
Visual Impairment. ICEVI The Educator 01.2009 - Education of the Blind - Catholic Encyclopedia on CD-ROM
- Who sets the standards and rules for braille?
- BRL: Electronic Braille Programs
- How Braille Began Enabling Technologies
- CNIB: Braille
- What is Braille
- Download Braille and ASL Specialty Fonts
Louis Braille: Biographies and Books
- The life of Louis Braille - RNIB
- Louis Braille Biography - AFB Braille Bug
- Louis Braille - Duxbury
- The Story of Louis Braille
- Louis Braille School bio.
- Louis Braille: A Touch of Genius Book
- The Boy Who Invented Books for the Blind
- Louis Braille (Lives and Times)
- Out of Darkness : The Story of Louis Braille
- A Picture Book of Louis Braille
- Who Was Louis Braille?
- Six Dots: A Story of Young Louis Braille
Unified English Braille (UEB)
- Paths to Literacy Paths to Literacy BANA UEB Rules and Guidelines
- Paths to Literacy UEB Quick Reference Sheet from
- Duxbury Systems PDF UEB Chart
- UEB Resources
Learning the New Braille Code
- The UEBOT project was developed to meet the unique need of retraining a nation of professionals that instruct and produce braille.
Transcription Services
- Braille Transcription Training (The Average Salary of Braille Transcribers)
- Braille Producers World Wide
- Duxbury Systems maintains a list of transcribers.
- A2i Transcription Services Braille, Large Print, Tape and Disk Birmingham, United Kingdom
- Braille Plus Transcription Service a leading provider of Braille transcription and embossing, large print documents, audio services, voice synthesis, and more serving the blind and disabled community and those who work with and/or serve them.
- Braille Jymico: production of graphics using raised contours and the first Canadian enterprise to produce musical texts in braille.
- Clovernook's Braille Printing House is recognized as one of the largest volume producers of Braille in North America. The Printing House annually produces more than 40 million pages.
- Midwestern Braille Volunteers Organization Web Site, St. Louis, MO Midwestern Braille Volunteers have been producing Braille material since 1963. We were originally formed as a service organization to produce Braille documents for the Catholic Church. As demand for other Braille materials grew, we formed a stand-alone non-profit organization serving schools and businesses with all kinds of Braille material in addition to our work for the church.
- World Wide Braille Producers
Software, Educational Materials and Learning
- Become A Braille Transcriber: National Braille Press has a 27-week training program which will prepare students for certification in Unified English Braille (UEB) transcription from the Library of Congress.
- Braille Certification Training Program: NFBBraille Courses at Hadley Institute for the Blind and Visually Impaired: Adult Continuing Education and High School Program and Hadley Institute for Professional Studies
- BRL: Braille Through Remote Learning is no longer holding remote classes but you can download the lessons for self-instruction.
- Braille Books and Aids at Amazon.com
- Future Aids- Braille Bookstore.
- Dancing Dots: Accessible Music Technology for Blind & Low Vision Performers since 1992
- Duxbury Braille Translator grade 2 braille translation and editing software with versions for DOS, Windows, and Macintosh systems.
- Music Braille Code: BANA is pleased to announce the publication of the new Music Braille Code, 2015. This completely revised publication is available for free download in two electronic versions: PDF and BRF. Hardcopy versions will also be produced and sold by the American Printing House for the Blind.
- Tack-Tiles Braille Systems are interchangeable with standard international toy building blocks. They provide a unique bridge, a smoother, shorter, more interesting path to Braille literacy.
Research
- International Council on English Braille
- Unified English Braille Code: The largest project of the ICEB has been to develop a single Unified English Braille Code (UEB or UEBC) for both literary and technical purposes throughout the English-speaking world. See UEB Project Information.
- Tactile Graphics: This project is to coordinate research and write guidelines for the production of tactile graphics and related teaching methods. See Tactile Graphics Project Information.
- BANA Braille Research
- Emerson Foulke
- Publications of Susan J. Lederman Ph.D. in tactile psychophysics and haptic perception. The Touch Laboratory, a member of the Robotics and Perception Lab at Queen's University in Kingston Ontario is directed by Dr. Susan Lederman.
Organizations and Advocacy
- American Foundation for the Blind Adult Braille Literacy Empowerment Guidelines
- Braille Authority of North America
- Braille Forum
- Braille Institute
- Canadian Braille Authority
- Internet Law Library Handicapped individuals and the law
- Jewish Braille Institute of America
- Lutheran Braille Workers, Inc.
- National Braille Press
- National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) Braille transcription and proofreading courses
Lecture on the Uniform Braille System by William Henry Illingworth, Esq (London Conference of 1902 London Conference, 1902)
Quoted from: Uniform Braille System by William Henry Illingworth, Esq.
Headmaster of the Royal Blind Asylum and School, Edinburgh, Scotland.
Read at a London Conference of 1902.
Louis Braille was born on 4th January 1809, at Coupvray, near Paris. At three years of age, an accident deprived him of his sight, and in 1819 he was sent to the Paris Blind School-which was originated by Valentin Hauy. Here he made rapid progress in all his studies. He learned to read by embossed Roman letter, which was exclusively used at the time and which continued popular for fifty years in that country and our own, and is still used in many schools in America.
In 1826, now a promising organist in a Paris church, Braille was elected Professor at the Institution. Both as pupil and teacher he spent most of his leisure trying to find a system by which the blind could write in relief.
One which had been invented by M. Barbier appeared the most promising. M. Charles Barbier was an officer of Artillery, who, being rich and philanthropic, was interested in the blind, and did what he could to promote their education. In 1825, he suggested embossing by means of a point method, the character containing 12 dots, 6 high and 2 wide, arranged in a rectangle The character thus obtained was large and unwieldy, though capable of an almost unlimited number of combinations.
Louis Braille cut Barbier's character to two and thus produced his well-known 3 by 2. On this basis Braille was the first who devised a practical scheme for printing and writing in tangible form, suitable to the tactile capacity of all. This was in 1829.
As this image from RNIB of his 1829 publishing of his code shows, his original alphabet involved the use of a horizontal rule and it was eliminated from the alphabet.
After some slight modification, it reached its present form in 1834, and is the system which has since borne his name. We do not find, however, nor does it appear, that Louis Braille, in arranging his system, paid attention to any other considerations than one, namely the methodical arrangement of the letters of the alphabet.
For my own part, I must candidly confess I have a strong leaning to the 'American Braille' arrangement, root and branch--the contractions, like the letters, being carefully and scientifically planned. Nearly one half of the letters of the alphabet are the same as our own, so that the labour of learning it by those conversant in English Braille would be very small.
The period 1825 to 1835 appears to have been a period of universal activity in matters relating to embossed literature and printing. In Britain, we has Gall, Alston, Moon, Fry, Frere, and Lucas, all bringing out their own peculiar types, and each having his own partisans. In America, there were Mr. Friedlander, Dr. Howe, and others.
About 1859 or 1860 the Braille system was introduced to America and was taught with some success at the St. Louis School for the Blind. In 1868, the British and Foreign Blind Association came into existence and having brought Braille into this country, gave to it a powerful impetus by printing and disseminating books in that type.
It will be seen that both in England and France there was, even at so late a date as 1878, considerable diversity of opinion as to claims of Braille as the best method of reading and writing for the blind.
In America the same thing occurred. William Bell Wait, of New York, inventor, or perhaps the perfector of New York Point type, tells us ..."the merits of the Braille system were recognized chiefly by a few blind persons who were engaged in teaching. It was proscribed as being arbitrary on the ground that it was unlike the ordinary forms of letters."
Editor's Note:
New York Point was more widely used than anyone remembers. Mr. Wait advocated NY Point as superior to both American Braille and British Braille. According to Robert Irwin in his book "As I Saw It" (1955), this "War of the Dots" divided the schools of the blind into two camps for until the issue was finally settled around 1916. One that used NY Point and another that advocated American Braille. The war was lost by both sides because the British stood by the braille code it was using. Ultimately, the wealth of code already available in the British Empire and the desire for a unified English language code lead to the acceptance of the Braille code we use today.
Louis Braille was born on 4th January 1809, at Coupvray, near Paris. At three years of age, an accident deprived him of his sight, and in 1819 he was sent to the Paris Blind School-which was originated by Valentin Hauy. Here he made rapid progress in all his studies. He learned to read by embossed Roman letter, which was exclusively used at the time and which continued popular for fifty years in that country and our own, and is still used in many schools in America.
In 1826, now a promising organist in a Paris church, Braille was elected Professor at the Institution. Both as pupil and teacher he spent most of his leisure trying to find a system by which the blind could write in relief.
One which had been invented by M. Barbier appeared the most promising. M. Charles Barbier was an officer of Artillery, who, being rich and philanthropic, was interested in the blind, and did what he could to promote their education. In 1825, he suggested embossing by means of a point method, the character containing 12 dots, 6 high and 2 wide, arranged in a rectangle The character thus obtained was large and unwieldy, though capable of an almost unlimited number of combinations.
Louis Braille cut Barbier's character to two and thus produced his well-known 3 by 2. On this basis Braille was the first who devised a practical scheme for printing and writing in tangible form, suitable to the tactile capacity of all. This was in 1829.
As this image from RNIB of his 1829 publishing of his code shows, his original alphabet involved the use of a horizontal rule and it was eliminated from the alphabet.
After some slight modification, it reached its present form in 1834, and is the system which has since borne his name. We do not find, however, nor does it appear, that Louis Braille, in arranging his system, paid attention to any other considerations than one, namely the methodical arrangement of the letters of the alphabet.
For my own part, I must candidly confess I have a strong leaning to the 'American Braille' arrangement, root and branch--the contractions, like the letters, being carefully and scientifically planned. Nearly one half of the letters of the alphabet are the same as our own, so that the labour of learning it by those conversant in English Braille would be very small.
The period 1825 to 1835 appears to have been a period of universal activity in matters relating to embossed literature and printing. In Britain, we has Gall, Alston, Moon, Fry, Frere, and Lucas, all bringing out their own peculiar types, and each having his own partisans. In America, there were Mr. Friedlander, Dr. Howe, and others.
About 1859 or 1860 the Braille system was introduced to America and was taught with some success at the St. Louis School for the Blind. In 1868, the British and Foreign Blind Association came into existence and having brought Braille into this country, gave to it a powerful impetus by printing and disseminating books in that type.
It will be seen that both in England and France there was, even at so late a date as 1878, considerable diversity of opinion as to claims of Braille as the best method of reading and writing for the blind.
In America the same thing occurred. William Bell Wait, of New York, inventor, or perhaps the perfector of New York Point type, tells us ..."the merits of the Braille system were recognized chiefly by a few blind persons who were engaged in teaching. It was proscribed as being arbitrary on the ground that it was unlike the ordinary forms of letters."
Editor's Note:
New York Point was more widely used than anyone remembers. Mr. Wait advocated NY Point as superior to both American Braille and British Braille. According to Robert Irwin in his book "As I Saw It" (1955), this "War of the Dots" divided the schools of the blind into two camps for until the issue was finally settled around 1916. One that used NY Point and another that advocated American Braille. The war was lost by both sides because the British stood by the braille code it was using. Ultimately, the wealth of code already available in the British Empire and the desire for a unified English language code lead to the acceptance of the Braille code we use today.
Music Braille Code Braille (links are to an external websites)
The Braille Authority of North America (BANA) published a new Music Braille Code in 2015. This completely revised publication is available for free download in two electronic versions (PDF and BRF) on BANA's website here: https://www.brailleauthority.org/music/music.html.
Hardcopy versions are also produced and sold by the American Printing House for the Blind on their website at https://www.aph.org/product/music-braille-code-2015-print/.
Braille Challenge at the Braille Institute is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to eliminate barriers to a fulfilling life caused by blindness and severe sight loss.