What is Braille
Braille is also called “blind script” in mainland China or “raised script” by some in Hong Kong. In Braille a word has six points, 3 on the left and 3 on the right from top down. On the top left is the first point, and on the bottom right is the sixth. Different combinations of points represent different words. For example, when both the first and the fourth points are raised, it is “C” in English, and when the first, third, fourth and fifth points are raised, it is “N” in English. The indication for upper/lower case differs from country to country.
The Chinese Braille is roughly divided into Cantonese Braille and Mandarin Braille. Since the basic components of Braille are different points, the Chinese Braille represents pinyin, the sounds of the language. Each Chinese character takes up 2-3 Braille cases to avoid homophones. At present, the computer can help correct wrongly written Braille characters, but only in a limited way.
To save space and provide more information, there has appeared the 8-point Braille, with one additional point written on bottom left (the seventh point) and one on bottom right (the eighth point). The 8-point Braille mainly appears on computer screens, representing regular script in big characters or some other special script.
In order to facilitate handwriting and save space, an adequate set of abbreviations for English Braille has been established since long ago. For example, “D” stands for “DAY”, “E” for “EVER” and “+” for “ING”. Besides, in English Braille A-J represent numbers 0-9, while with the third point added A-J represent letters K-T; A-E with the third and sixth points added stand for U-Z, where W is excluded as it is represented by the second, fourth, fifth and sixth points. Block letters are indicated with the sixth point before them.
For numbers, the number sign (the combination of the third, fourth, fifth and sixth points) is added before the letter. In English Braille, A=1, B=2, C=3, and so on.
