Simply Braille

You probably all looked at the title of this post, Simply Braille, and gawked. Braille simple? Well, I taught myself a few years back, and yes, it is simple once you understand it. I did all the work (it took me literally hours), which will make it much easier for you to learn than it was for me. I will explain it (and simply, too) here. So, who here wants to learn how to read Braille?

For starters, I will answer to question what is Braille? Braille is a way for the blind or visually impaired to read. It is also a way to read without looking at what you are reading, and a way to read in the dark. Those are some benefits of reading Braille, as well as being able to impress people (some people, people who just look at Braille and think, “That looks like a bunch of dots to me.”)

There are different levels of Braille. In American Standard Braille there are three levels: Grade One, Grade One-and-a-half, and Grade Two. Here I will be teaching you mostly just Grade One, with a little bit of Grade Two at the end. In Grade One you will learn the simple alphabet and your numbers. You’ll learn how to write your name! Doesn’t that sound elementary? I think so.

I have in bold the important new words or titles you need to know to be able to explain how to write and read Braille to your awe-struck friends.

I’ve been doing Braille for a year-and-a-half now, and it’s really easy writing it now. Still hard reading it. Sometimes I’ll cheat and use my eyes. 😀

Braille is written using a Braille slate and stylus. Unless you have a metal or plastic Braille slate and a real (and pointy, so be careful!) stylus, do what I did: Make your own slate (try cardboard and duct tape for the hinges) and find your own stylus (I use an old pen that doesn’t function anymore; I put duct tape around the part where I hold it to help me get a better grip). To do this, you have to be a little creative. I have posted a picture here of mine soon, but you will still have to add-lib sort of.

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See the list of books and online resources at the end of this page. Some of the books or websites/webpages have pictures of Braille slates in them. A real Braille slate has the two metal or plastic parts hinged at one end (one of the width sides), and is about 8 or 9 inches long and 2 inches high. It has four rows of little windows, it appears. These windows are called cells. There are six little grooves along the edges of each cell. Think jail cell (just smaller, and with grooves), not cell as in what makes up a living organism (cells aren’t that small!). 😀

Three important notes/rules here: #1. Braille is written from right to left. Remember this rule. I sometimes forgot this the first month I wrote Braille, and then I had to start over again with what I was writing. #2. Braille is read from left to right. A picture will soon be featured for this, too. #3. Therefore, Braille is written backwards (the dot combos are written backwards, I mean). It makes sense, once you understand it. You’re punching the Braille dots on one side of the paper, from right to left, and the dots appear on the other side of the paper, where you can feel them. You read them from left to right. Try it out. You’ll see.

Remember the cells in the Braille slate? The cells with the six grooves? I’ll bet you’ve guessed this already, but I’ll tell you. The pointy end of the stylus fits into one groove at a time, and that’s how you write Braille. Each of the six grooves has a number assigned to it. There are three columns, and two rows of grooves per cell. A picture has been posted, in which will be listed the numbers for each groove. The groove, the top left one, is assigned the number 1. The one below it is number 2. Below that one number 3. And on to the next column. Remember to reverse these numbers when you are writing Braille. Those are the numbers for when you’re reading Braille. The number for a left groove will now be for the right groove. See photo.

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Don’t worry about it too much, though, for right now. I went a year or more without knowing there even were numbers assigned to each groove, and that there were even grooves, and I lived. Knowing about the grooves sure would’ve helped, though.

It takes a very long time to write Braille by hand, so that’s why people have invented other ways to write Braille. There are Braille typewriters, notetakers, Braillers, etc. Learn more about these in the books listed at the end of this page.

Take time to learn Braille. Practice makes perfect.

Don’t just write Braille, read Braille as well. Read your own Braille (yeah, I guess you can cheat). If you have any friends who know Braille or who would like to learn, write notes in Braille to each other. If you have no one to teach, write your own short book, blog post, etc. explaining how to write and read Braille. It is a topic not often covered in an explanatory, try-it-yourself way. People seem to regard it more as something forbidden to be learned from home or elsewhere by someone not blind or visually impaired.

Here are some further-learning tips:

Even if people say it’s weird, feel the Braille everywhere. Check church (on signs, fire extinguishers, etc.). Also watch out for it in public schools on signs and such, and in public work places, libraries, etc. The most common places I’ve found Braille are on bathroom signs, the does-all-the-work computer/printer thingy at the post office, and the library. You will not understand the Braille at first because everything in public places will be in Grade 2 Braille. In this grade, there will be letter contractions (letters commonly found together get to have their own combo, like ‘ck’, or ‘ing’, or ‘ed’). There will also be word contraction for words like ‘and’ and ‘or’, and ‘the’. On the bathroom signs there will be either the contraction for ‘men’, which is ‘m.’ in Braille, or the contraction for ‘women’, which is ‘wom.’ in Braille. Don’t worry. You’ll get used to it – you’ll have to (isn’t that encouraging?).
Ask a head librarian at your public library if the library has a Braille book. You can probably get a Braille Bible through Inter-library Loan if your library has that service.
Make games in Braille, or, even better, get a special card deck with the Braille in one corner of each card.
Try reading Braille in the dark. Go up to your bedroom or into a basement or somewhere where there are no distracting people (and if you need it, no distracting or tempting thing). Have all the lights turned off. There, get out a Braille paper and read it. Or, even better, write something in Braille and then, try to read it. Braille is play. It’s not work, or a school study, or anything like that!
Ask around! Invite anyone you know and would like to include to join the Braille club! Teach Braille, then send secret messages. If you want, and if you can, (this idea hasn’t been tried yet, as a note), have a Braille sleepover with your Braille club. Read stories in Braille, and, if you can, have an entire Braille book on hand so that anyone who wishes can spend the night reading with the light turned out while other sleep peacefully. 😛
Listen to music while you write Braille.
Copy stories and poems and whatnot into Braille. I have an entire folder of poems in braille.
If no other family member knows Braille, you can write secret things in Braille and leave your papers out so that they can taunt siblings.
Write to me. Ask me for more assistance, or just write to get to know another Braille-writer. Or join my Braille club.
Whatever you do, have fun!!!