Write and Read Braille

Introduction

Have you ever been in an elevator and wondered what the many little dots on the buttons are for? You can also find these dots in public buildings on room number signs or on ATMs. These arrangements of dots are a special writing system for the visually impaired called braille. By feeling the dots with their fingers, people can read what is written on a sign or elevator button. Do you want to find out how to read with your fingers? This activity will show you how!

Materials

• Graph paper
• Parchment paper
• Pencil or other pointed object such as a knitting needle
• Cardboard
• Computer with access to the internet
• Tape
• Helper
  
  
  Image Credit: Svenja Lohner, Science Buddies / Science Buddies

What Happened?

Were you able to read with your fingers? It can be quite challenging if you are not used to it. However, you should have been able to feel the bumps on the graph paper that you made with your pencil. If you run your index finger across the paper, the touch receptors in your fingertips recognize the difference between the flat paper and the bump. This triggers your receptors and they send a signal from the nerves in your fingertips to your brain. This way you know how many bumps you felt on the paper and in which position in the 6-dot cell they were.

Usually the index fingers are used to read braille, although the other fingers should have been able to identify the bumps as well. It makes a difference how close or far apart you space the individual dots: if they are too far away, one fingertip alone is not able to detect them anymore. If they are too close together, your finger might not be able to identify them as two separate dots. Now that you know how braille works, try reading it with your fingers the next time you see it!

Digging Deeper

Being able to see was for a long time a prerequisite for reading. No other reading medium was available for people who were blind or had impaired vision. This only changed in the early 1800s when Samuel Gridley Howe, the founder of the New England School for the Blind, created Boston Line Type, the first writing system for the blind. The system was based on a tactile reading code, which means reading by touch.

This type of reading is possible because our fingertips contain a huge network of nerve endings and touch receptors that allow us to detect tiny bumps on a piece of paper. Once these touch receptors are activated by feeling a bump, a signal is sent from the nerves in our fingertips all the way into our brain, which is then able to decode the information we gained by touching the paper.

While Boston Line Type consisted of an embossed simplified Roman alphabet, the braille system developed later by Louis Braille consists of arbitrary characters composed of several dots. These raised dots are arranged in a 6-dot cell and a different pattern is assigned to each letter of the alphabet. Braille got this idea from a military code called night writing. This code allowed soldiers to communicate during the night without making any sounds or using light. Although several other tactile writing systems have been developed over time, braille has been widely adopted and is still in use today. If you look closely, you can see these dots in many places, such as elevator buttons, ATMs, and various signs in public buildings.

For Further Exploration

• Does it make a difference which fingertip you use for reading? Try using your middle finger or pinky instead of your index finger and see which finger is best in identifying the writing.
• You can also read braille with two hands. Braille readers use the index fingers of both the left and right hands simultaneously to reduce their reading time. How does reading with one hand compare to reading with two hands?
• Try to change the spacing between your dots. Can you read your letters better if the dots are closer to each other, or further apart?

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