Braille Bit: December 2009

In this, our final Braille Bit of the year, we’ll look at how braille is printed.

Just as printed matter can be produced with paper and a pencil, typewriter, or printer, braille can be written in several ways.

The slate and stylus are the equivalent of paper and pencil. This consists of a slate or template with evenly-spaced depressions for the dots of braille cells and a stylus for creating the individual braille dots.

With paper placed in the slate, tactile dots are made by pushing the pointed end of the stylus into the paper over the depressions. The paper bulges on its reverse side, forming “dots.” Because of their portability, the slate and stylus are especially helpful for taking notes during lectures and for labeling things like file folders.

Braille is also produced by a machine known as a braillewriter. Unlike a typewriter which has more than 50 keys, the braillewriter has only six keys and a space bar. These keys are numbered to correspond with the six dots of a braille cell. Since most braille symbols contain more than a single dot, you can push all or any of the braillewriter keys at the same time.

Technological developments in the computer industry have provided and continue to expand additional avenues of literacy for braille users. Software programs and portable electronic braille notetakers allow users to save and edit their writing, have it displayed back to them, either verbally or tactually, and produce a hard copy via a desktop computer-driven braille embosser.