Have you ever tried to read Braille?
I have always marvelled at how so many people learn to read and write in Braille. On the surface, the system for visually impaired people looks very complicated. It seems astounding to me that “a blind person can read braille faster than a sighted person can read print.” This fact is taken from an article written by Kelli Finger and published in July 31, 2023, by Mental Floss. The article explains in depth how Louis Braille, a blind student himself, developed this system while attending a school for the blind in France. The year was 1824, and Braille was only 15 years old. He borrowed ideas from a military code used by the French army and adapted it to form cells of six raised dots, each representing one sound. Braille also developed a separate code for learning music. Since then, a blind mathematician named Abraham Nemeth invented a code for advanced math subjects. You can imagine how computers and the Internet have simplied and widened the options available for reading and writing in Braille. There are currently over 130 different languages that have Braille codes.
Today, according to a blog post by written M&M on August 29, 2023, only 10% of blind children in the United States learn to read Braille compared to over 50% in 1950. There are several reasons for the decline in the teaching of Braille. For one thing, learning Braille is very time consuming and requires bulky and expensive books and other equipment. Technological advances have led to text-to-speech tools that often take the place of Braille. Most educators for the blind, however, advocate for increased teaching of Braille so that children can use it alongside modern technical aids. These educators site studies that show that students who learn Braille are better equipped to integrate into a society of sighted people. They gain a higher level of education and are qualified for better jobs than those who do not learn Braille.
Legos making Braille easier to learn.
Braille typewriter
Braille book