Louis Braille, the creator of the Braille alphabet, gave the blind reading independence almost 200 years ago. Now, blind children learn the embossed symbols just like sighted ones learn the letters of the alphabet. But this is a lengthy process, which can be carried out only in the presence of another person. Learn in this article how the Tactile Images platform can be used to give the blind total studying independence.

1. Braille – the tactile alphabet of the blind
2. Studying Braille – the traditional way
3. Studying Braille with modern technology
4. Create your self-describing alphabet
5. Enjoy your first self-describing books

1. Braille – the tactile alphabet of the blind

At first, there was Charles Barbier and his ”Night-Writing”. Used for military purposes, this was the first tactile alphabet ever invented. Nonetheless, this first variant encountered some technical problems, like the fact that it could not be read with only one finger.

Louis Braille, a blind person himself, came to refine Barbier’s tactile alphabet and revolutionize the education of the blind. He developed the code at the fragile age of 15.

The Braille alphabet is formed by six dots in a cell – compared to Barbier’s twelve dots, which were too many to touch with one finger. The top left dot is number 1, and the bottom right is number 6. The first ten letters of the alphabet use only the top four dots, while letters k through t add dot number 3. For letters u, v, x, y, and z dot 6 will be added. Because at the time when Louis Braille invented the code there was no w in the French alphabet, this letter doesn’t follow the pattern and is created differently.

There are also eight-dot braille systems available. Both historic and modern, they were created for different purposes such as music or mathematic reading.

2. Studying Braille – the traditional way

3. Studying Braille with modern technology

There’s a way in which blind children can learn the Braille alphabet faster and independently – they can do it with the aid of the Tactile Images READER mobile app.

This free app plays the role of the specialist over the shoulder. The big difference between the two is that the app can be carried anywhere, permitting the blind child to study the alphabet at his own pace.

Due to Augmented Reality, the app knows what lies underneath the finger of the child exploring an embossed text. Once the child keeps his finger in a specific spot for three seconds, the app tells him exactly what that letter is by using modern technologies such as Interactive Augmented Reality and Voice-Over.

4. Create your self-describing alphabet

The educational platform Tactile Images gives any parent, teacher of the blind, or volunteer the freedom to create a self-describing alphabet. You can do this with the aid of the EDITOR. You just need a plain alphabet, which you must digitalize. Learn about digitalizing in the EDITOR and adding the QR Code right here.

After creating and printing the self-describing alphabet, you need to emboss it. You can do it with the aid of a Braille Slate and stylus or you can use DIY techniques, that are 100 times less inexpensive than other embossing methods. We created some videos to help you emboss and wrote articles on this subject to guide you. Read and watch!

5. Enjoy your first self-describing books

The self-describing alphabet is only a part of the Tactile Images educational revolution. We also created a LIBRARY of 800 self-describing tactile graphics because we want to give the blind image studying independence. Also, think about how many exercises books could be digitalized to facilitate the independent learning of the blind. We are creating the infrastructure. You can help enrich the LIBRARY and give the blind new learning opportunities!

In 1824, Louis Braille gave blind people access to independent learning.
In 2020, 200 years later, Tactile Images comes to give them images studying independence. Join the revolution!