C o n t r a c t i o n s!

I was starting to think reading braille wasn't going to be that hard because once I memorized the formation of the dots and punctuation, reading it wasn't so bad. Now its time to add in contractions. Contractions are groups of letters that appear so often in print that they are represented by a letter(s) or special symbol in braille. It's like short hand. Here are some common words that are contracted in braille: AND, FOR, THE, WITH, BUT, and CAN.

      I haven't started to practice reading braille with contractions added in but I'm guessing its going to be more of a challenge. 

Learning A Little More About Braille

I've found some helpful information on http://www.nationalbrailleweek.org/page/braille-facts about braille that I thought people might like to read.

What is Braille?

Braille is the system of touch reading and writing that utilises raised dots to represent the letters of the print alphabet for persons who are blind or visually impaired. The Braille system also includes symbols to represent punctuation, mathematics and scientific characters, music, computer notation, and foreign languages.

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Why is Braille used?

Braille is not a language. It is a code by which all languages may be written and read. Through the use of Braille, people who are blind are able to review and study the written word. It provides a vehicle for literacy and gives an individual the ability to become familiar with spelling, punctuation, paragraphing and other formatting considerations.

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Who uses Braille?

Braille is used mainly by people who are blind, deafblind or visually impaired. It is critically important to the lives of these people as the ability to read and write in Braille opens the door to literacy, intellectual freedom, equal opportunity, and personal security. Teachers, parents and others who are not visually impaired ordinarily read Braille with their eyes.

Can't Forget Puntuation

Ok, so I think I pretty much have memorized the alphabet so a couple days ago I’ve moved on to the next thing in the book Just Enough To Know Better, which is memorizing punctuation. There are dots that represent a capital sign, comma, period, question mark, parentheses, brackets, colon, and a few more. I think learning punctuation was a little harder than the alphabet because they don’t have patterns such as the alphabet does. Now that I know the alphabet and punctuation I can start to read simple sentences such as the picture below, which reads i love you.

I love you

26 Letters of the Alphabet

I've borrowed the book Just Enough To Know Better ( a braille primer) by Eileen P. Curran, from a center in my area that specializes in working with blind children. I'm making a commitment to learn to read braille, even if it's just the basics, over the time period of 6 weeks. I'm very interested in getting to know how blind people deal with everyday things we all do such as brushing our teeth and combing our hair. Blind children especially hold my interest because they have to struggle to learn how to do ordinary things that most sighted people do everyday. Blind children, unlike blind adults who have been blind for a number of years, are not use to finding a way to handle their everyday business such as adults who have adapted to being blind.

I think it would be great if people who have never thought of learning to read braille could attempt to learn. Learning braille wont stop blindness but it sure will show the blind that someone cares enough to see the world as they do, even if it's only through your hands.

So far i have been working on memorizing the 26 letters of the alphabet. Just like in our early school years when we had to practice writing and memorizing the alphabet, you have to memorize what each braille letter looks like. Every letter, sign, or punctuation mark is represented by a braille cell, which is a unit of six dots .  I've made flashcards with each letter on a card to help me memorize them. I am going to be practicing to memorize the formation on each letter and its feel. In a few days when I feel ready I will try to read whole sentences. It's a little challenging so wish me luck!

                                                                                                   Example of the braille alphabet

Example of a braille cell