This is part of my webcomic Postcards in Braille, which you can read on ComicFury or Tapastic. Updates on Mondays!
This comic/guide works well enough on its own, so I thought it’d be nice to post it here as well 😀 Braille is really cool and you don’t need to be blind or visually impaired to learn it – and spreading the use of Braille can help us build a more inclusive society! everyone wins!
Bonus fun fact: Braille is originally based on Night writing (or sonography), a tactile reading/writing system created for soldiers to communicate silently at night. Louis Braille adapted it into easier to read cells, creating the Braille system. Good to know it evolved into something so useful!
[Image description:
A comic drawn in a fun style.
“The Postcards Guide to Braille!
Red-haired character with red glasses (narrator): Braille is a tactile writing system created by Louis Braille in 1824. It consists of a series of raised dots that represent letters and symbols.
While sighted people use their eyes to read print, blind and visually impaired people use their fingers to read Braille.
Braille can also be used to write music, scientific notation and more!
Braille uses more space than regular print, which has led to the use of contractions. This way, we can classify Braille in different levels:
Grade 1: Goes letter-by-letter. Mostly for beginners.
Grade 2: Use of contractions. The standard for Braille print.
Grade 3: Even more contractions. Used for personal notes.
Blue-haired person, who looks worried: But how do you tell the symbols apart? It’s all dots!
Red: Oh, it’s super simple!
Introducing the Braille cell!
Each character consists of a 6-dot cell. The raised dots make the different letters and symbols.
Each dot in the cell is identified with a number. (Illustration of the cells: three dots high and two wide, labeled 1-2-3 top to bottom on the left column, and 4-5-6 top to bottom on the right.)
Some of the ways to write Braille are using a slate and stylus or a Braille typewriter. If you use a slate and stylus you have to write backwards!
The basic Braille alphabet goes like this: (illustration of the Braille alphabet, which I can try to transcribe if anyone wants me to?)
Note that K-T are A-J plus dot 3, and U-Z are A-J plus dots 3 and 6. W is an exception.
Blue: Got it!
Red: To write numbers, you write the number symbol (3-4-5-6) followed by the corresponding letters: A-1, B-2, C-3, D-4, E-5, F-6, G-7, H-8, I-9, J-0.
To write math there’s a special kind of Braille called the Nemeth Code, after its creator Abraham Nemeth. This code is also used for scientific notation.
Just like the number symbol, the capital symbol is used before a capital letter. (Red-haired person gestures to an illustration of the capital symbol, which is one dot in the part of the cell identified as “6.”) Using it twice means the whole word is in caps.
I could go on forever, but I think this is enough for today!
I hope this has helped you learn a bit more about Braille and how useful it is.
Now we have more tools like audiobooks and screen readers, but Braille literacy is still important! After all, radio and TV didn’t replace print.
Black-haired person: And reading with your fingers is really cool! It’s like a superpower!
Red: Yeah, that too!“
End description.]
Published
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