Information Center - Braille - Clovernook Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired

What is Braille?

man reading braille Braille is a system of touch reading for the blind which employs embossed dots evenly arranged in quadrangular letter spaces or cells. In each cell, it is possible to place six dots, three high and two wide. By selecting one or several dots in characteristic position or combination, 63 different characters can be formed. To aid in describing these characters by their dot or dots, the six dots of the cell are numbered 1,2,3, downward on the left, and 4, 5, 6, downward on the right, thus:

The 63 possible characters have a systematic arrangement and are universally grouped in a table of seven lines, as follows:

Line 1 is formed of dots 1,2,4,5.

Line 2 adds dot 3 to each of the characters of Line 1.

Line 3 adds dots 3-6 to each of the characters of Line 1.

Line 4 adds dot 6 to each of the characters of Line 1.

Line 5 repeats the characters of Line 1 in the lower portion of the cell, using dots 2, 3, 5, 6.

Line 6 is formed of dots 3, 4, 5, 6.

Line 7 is formed of dots 4, 5, 6.

hands reading braille Literary Braille, as officially approved, comprises two grades. Grade 1, or uncontracted Braille is in full spelling and consists of the letters of the alphabet, punctuation, numbers, and a number of composition signs which are special to Braille. Grade 2, or contracted Braille consists of uncontracted Braille and 189 contractions and short-form words, and should be known as "English Braille."

For more information about Braille, visit the Braille Authority of North America’s website, www.brailleauthority.org.

Accessibility Statement

Clovernook Center for Blind and Visually Impaired's website has been designed to be as accessible as possible to all website visitors. As such this website has been created to be accessible to those with varying degrees of visual impairment and has been found to be compliant using the former Watchfire WebXact and Bobby systems. This site strives to be accessible to all, if you have found content that you are having difficulty accessing, please contact us at accessibility@clovernook.org and we will address the issue.