200 Years Of Braille

2024 marks the 200th anniversary of the invention of the Braille code. Braille is a tactile code that uses symbols comprised of up to six dots, enabling blind people and those with severe low vision to read using their fingers.

In 1824, a blind 15-year-old from France, named Louis Braille, changed the course of literacy for the blind forever, through the invention of a tactile code that would go on to be used the world over, being adapted for over 130 languages, music, mathematics and the sciences.

Braille is often described as the only true form of literacy for the blind - anything that can be written in print can also be written in Braille. Whilst there have been huge advances in voice-recordings and electronic text that can be read aloud using synthesised speech, Braille remains the only tool that enables the reader to bring their independent interpretation to the text – imagining the voices that characters might use, or reading aloud, whether that be a bedtime story read to a child or a speech delivered to an audience of hundreds. With practice and experience, competent Braille readers can reach reading speeds of over 300 words per minute.

As with many new innovations and their inventors, Louis Braille himself encountered setbacks as the world came to better understand Braille’s true value. Before broadening onto the world stage and gaining the recognition it deserved, Braille for a considerable time, remained and grew through the enthusiasm and understanding of the blind community. Thankfully, before Louis Braille’s death from tuberculosis at the age of 43, Braille’s value was finally becoming recognised by society, and independent literacy for the blind was beginning to spread across the globe.

Around 1889, an Irishman called John Tighe arrived in Aotearoa New Zealand. John was blind himself, and he was central to establishing the Jubilee Institute for the Blind in Parnell, Auckland. Apparently, he taught 133 blind people to read and write Braille, this being the first recorded account of Braille being taught in Aotearoa New Zealand. By way of comparison, the Braille code apparently didn’t arrive in the USA until 1916, and even then it wasn’t officially adopted there until 1940.

Another Aotearoa New Zealand first came in 2022, when BANZAT (The Braille Authority of NZ Aotearoa Trust) surveyed the wider Braille users’ community of Aotearoa New Zealand, who voted strongly in favour of capitalising the word ‘Braille’ in all contexts, out of respect to its inventor Louis Braille, who gave his name to the code.

Braille can be embossed onto heavy paper which helps the dots to hold their shape. It does, however, take up considerably more space than print - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, for example, takes up sixteen rather large volumes in Braille. Because of its bulk, Braille utilises around two-hundred contractions, or ways of using fewer symbols to write words. This contracted code is known as The Unified English Braille Code (UEB), or Grade 2 Braille. UEB was adopted in Aotearoa New Zealand, as one of the first countries to use it, in 2005.

Braille can also be produced electronically, and there are a number of devices available that have refreshable Braille displays, whereby one line of Braille appears at a time, produced by rounded pins that pop up to create symbols. These devices give access to all regular electronic documents and functions, including email, surfing the internet, word-processing, spreadsheets and the like.

A number of children and young people across Aotearoa New Zealand use Braille to access the curriculum. Most live in their home communities and attend their local schools. They receive specialist teaching from Resource Teachers Vision (RTV), employed by Blind Low Vision Education Network of NZ (BLENNZ).

Across Term 4, BLENNZ ākonga (students) and staff are involved in a variety of activities to celebrate 200 years of Braille. Adult Braille readers from across the mōtu will also be invited to join the celebrations. The theme for the term is ‘Braille is our taonga’. Look out for the special displays popping up in community and school libraries and bookshops.

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