Seeing the World by Touch: An Exploration of the Magic of Braille in Opening Doors of Opportunity for the Visually Impaired.

Every January 4, 2024, the international world celebrates World Braille Day. The day is held to commemorate the importance of braille as a means of communication for the blind. Braille itself is a media reminder of the importance of accessibility and independence for those supporting disabilities with braille.

 

Braille itself is a tactile representation of numeric and alphabetic symbols that uses six dots to represent each letter and number, as well as scientific and mathematical symbols. The name braille itself is named after its inventor, Louis Brialle, whose birthday is used as the world braille date.

 

Initially, Captain Charles Barbier, a former Napoleonic officer in the heavy armaments division, was inspired to create letters aimed at the blind. Captain Barbier created a cipher in the form of a number of dots and lines. This concept was used in the message written in braille letters so that it could be read by feeling the series of lines and dots arranged.

 

Louis Braille saw that these lines and dots could also be useful for the blind, which was then tested on the blind with the embossed lines and dots that Barbier initiated. It turns out that blind people are more sensitive when using their fingers to trace dots than lines. That's why Braille letters now only use a combination of dots and empty space.

 

Braille itself has developed into three types of letters.

 

1. Japanese Braille

 

Japanese braille letters are known as tenji, which means dot characters. Japanese braille is an abiguda-based vowel where each symbol represents a specific consonant and vowel. In writing, vowels are written in the upper right corner, while consonants are written in the lower right corner. In addition, there are four dots for markers.

 

2. Korean braille letters

 

Korean braille letters are unique because of the graphic system and reflect the pattern of hangeul letters. This causes initial consonants, vowels and final consonants to combine. But for numeric characters and punctuation marks, the braille still has the same system as the original braille.

 

3. ASCII Braille Letters

 

These letters were originally used in North America. Braille ASC II has 64 characters to represent all possible dot combinations of six dot-braille. These braille letters are designed to be a means of storing and sending data digitally.

 

In 2023 yesterday a team from Indonesia from Binus International Students created a braile reading device and successfully became one of the winners in the google solution challlenge 2023 program which is incorporated in the Wonder Reader group.

 

Their work will facilitate teaching and learning activities for blind and deaf people in various regions in Indonesia. The technology developed is also supported by the Android operating system because it is considered easier and widely owned by people in the regions.