What is Braille?
The Braille system is a method that is widely used by blind people to
read and write. Braille was devised in 1821 by Louis Braille, a
Frenchman. 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
(64) permutations, including the arrangement in which no dots are
raised. For reference purposes, a particular permutation may be
described by naming the positions where dots are raised, the positions
being universally numbered 1-3, from top to bottom on the left, and 4-6,
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,
that is the letter 'm'. The lines of horizontal Braille text are
separated by a space, much like visible printed text, so that the dots
of one line can be differentiated from the Braille text above and below.
Punctuation is represented by its own unique set of characters.
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. Braille 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.
(Source:Wikipedia)
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