Families
People with severe vision impairment usually use either braille (raised dots) or large print to read text, depending on their degree of impairment.
Braille
Braille is a system of reading and writing using raised dots on a page. These dots, in cells of six, represent the letters of the alphabet, numbers and punctuation marks. Read about the history of braille.
Braille is read by moving the fingers from left to right along each line. Usually, people with vision impairment use both hands.
The average reading speed is about 125 words per minute but speeds of up to 200 words per minute are possible. Most blind people use contracted, or short-hand, braille.
Braille allows people with severe vision impairment the opportunity to read – everything from novels like Harry Potter and newspapers, to textbooks, manuals and everyday material like insurance policies, cookbooks or contracts.
Braille also allows blind people to pursue hobbies like music, playing cards, Scrabble and other games.
Large print
Large print can often help people with vision impairment.
Print can be enlarged, or enhanced, by:
- Bringing a book closer to the face (despite common fears, this is not harmful to a child’s eyes)
- Increasing contrast by adjusting lighting
- Using a magnifier
- Printing in larger fonts, sometimes on coloured paper to improve contrast (this very much depends on the individual).
History of braille
(From the Perkins School for the Blind)
Braille was created by a young Frenchman named Louis Braille, a student at a school for the blind in Paris.
In 1821, Captain Charles Barbier visited the school and demonstrated a system of writing he had developed to help soldiers pass instructions at night without using light. The night-writing system consisted of a "cell" made up of 12 raised dots, which could be arranged in different patterns to represent different sounds.
Louise Braille realised that simplifying the cell to a rectangle of six dots – two dots across and three dots high – could enable a fingertip to interpret the dots with one touch and move rapidly to the next cell.
Working with fellow students, Braille developed his six-dot cells to represent letters of the alphabet, numbers, and punctuation marks. He continued to work on the system for years, creating different codes for maths and music.
Unlike previous systems, Braille also offered those who are blind the opportunity to write. Braille is written on heavy paper using either a slate and stylus, or a braille-writing machine (brailler). Using the slate and stylus is similar to printing with a pen or pencil. A stylus comes in a variety of sizes and styles, some resembling a pencil, and is used to push dots down through the paper. The slate, which services as the guide, can be made of metal or plastic and is hinged so that it guides the writer on both sides of the paper.
Braille can also be written with a brailler. Like a modified typewriter, a brailler has a keyboard of six keys, each representing a dot within a Braille cell. By pushing various combinations of the keys, the brailler produces different letters of the alphabet and other braille symbols.
Louis Braille's fellow students immediately accepted his system and the first braille book was published in 1827. In 1854, his school adopted braille as its official system. A universal English braille code was not adopted until 1932, when US and British agencies agreed upon a standardised system.
Also helping to increasing the availability and usage of braille was the invention of the Perkins Brailler. In 1951, David Abraham, a woodworking teacher at Perkins School for the Blind, created a portable, less-expensive alternative to traditional braille-writing machines.
Gradually braille has been accepted as the standard reading and writing system for people who are blind. Today, braille is used in nearly every country of the world and has been adapted for almost every known language.
