Accessible Information

About braille and Moon

Summary: Information about two ways of reading by touch.

• Braille
• Moon

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For hundreds of years people have experimented with different sorts of raised type which can be read by touch. The earliest known method was invented by a blind Arab professor in the 14th century who improvised a method of identifying his books and making notes.

Today, for many blind people braille and Moon are invaluable. Personally being able to read information makes a big difference to someone's sense of independence.

Braille

In Louis Braille's lifetime there were over 20 different systems of embossed type. Most were invented by sighted people. They were often easier to read by sight than by touch and usually could only be produced in a printing house. This meant that blind people had no means of writing for themselves.

Louis Braille, a cobbler's son born near Paris in 1809, lost his sight in early childhood after an accident with one of his father's tools. He went to school in Paris where he learned to read embossed type. Remaining there as a teacher, he perfected a system that could be both read and written by blind people.

The system he invented - braille - is based on six dots, like the design on a domino: it consists of 63 symbols made up of all the possible variations of these dots. 26 of these represent the letters of the alphabet and 10 punctuation marks. They can be used simply to produce a letter-by-letter copy of print. This is known as Grade 1 or uncontracted braille. It is seldom used, as it takes up a lot of space and is comparatively slow to read.

Grade 2 braille was developed to reduce the size of books and make reading quicker. Other symbols are used to represent common letter combinations, for example 'OW', 'ER', and words such as 'AND' and 'FOR'. Combinations of two symbols are also used to represent some words, eg 'THROUGH'. Some characters may change their meaning, depending on how they are spaced.

Braille - further information

Moon

Some people, particularly if they lose their sight later in life, find braille too difficult to master. However, they may be able to read Moon, a system made up of lines and curves.

Dr William Moon invented his system in 1845. He was partially sighted as a child and became blind when he was 21. He soon mastered all the systems of embossed writing available and found that none was really satisfactory.

Moon uses some ordinary letters in simplified form; others consist of straight and hooked lines, angles and half-circles. The alphabet consists of only nine characters, their meaning depending on which way they are used.

History of Moon - further information

Content author: corpinfo@rnib.org.uk

Last updated: 20/11/2008 11:13