From Scholastic Books to Braille

From Scholastic Books to Braille:  A Journey in Reading

By Alice Jane-Marie Massa

                During this past week, I heard that Scholastic Books marked, in 2020, the 100^th anniversary of its founding in Pennsylvania.  Always fascinated by books, I, as a young reader, loved having the opportunity to purchase the paperback Scholastic Books for pleasure reading and for the onset of a lifelong collection of books–standard print, then large-print books, and finally braille books.  Despite my downsizing during last year, I still have a few of the Scholastic Books on my bookshelves.  Three of these books are about Helen Keller; the one of these print books which I purchased first is the most dear to me because in the back of the book is a pictorial representation of the braille alphabet–the place where I was first introduced to the braille alphabet. 

                In 1981, when I still had some limited usable vision, I used a hole-punch and some cards which I cut to the size of about one inch by two inches; thus, in this manner, I made flashcards for my learning the braille alphabet.  I did not create raised dots as the braille system uses, but only had holes to resemble the dots.  In this unusual way, I began to learn braille.  Since at that time, I was unaware of any rehabilitation center or even the Hadley School for the Blind to learn braille, I chose to learn all that I could about braille by taking the braille transcribing course through the Library of Congress.  While I took an unusual road to braille, I am grateful for my opportunities to learn braille and to continue to use Louis Braille’s system of reading and writing throughout my later decades.

                When I went to Western Michigan University for a master’s degree in blind rehabilitation, I received an exemption from taking the braille course because I already had earned my certificate as a braille transcriber from the Library of Congress.  (This framed certificate hangs on the wall above the desk where my Perkins brailler is.) 

                A Perkins brailler (or braille writer) has only six keys (one for each dot of the braille cell), a lever to advance the paper, a lever or key to backspace, and a space bar.  Although I first borrowed for a short while a Perkins brailler from someone, I purchased my current machine in 1982; this heavy-duty machine has traveled with me wherever I have moved.  To make the depression of the keys easier, I have an electric brailler and also have “extension keys.”  The number of pages I have brailled in the past more than four decades I cannot begin to count!  I do distinctly recall the first time my dad and I tried to insert the paper into the borrowed standard brailler.  I thought we would never insert the cardstock type of paper properly, but we finally managed to master this clever machine.

                As a volunteer and as a full-time rehabilitation instructor, I enjoyed introducing adult students to braille and teaching them braille.  Louis Braille made the teaching of his system so easy and logical because he invented, from age twelve through age sixteen, an ingenious method for his tactile alphabet which eventually spread around the world. 

To understand the basics of braille, you must know that a “braille cell” is a rectangular space in which there is room for three dots vertically and two dots horizontally.  A braille cell may consist of zero to six dots, in various patterns.  This six-dot cell configuration allows for 63 possibilities for the arrangement of dots.  Each dot has a particular number:  from top to bottom on the left side of the braille cell, the dots are numbered one, two, and three.  On the right side of the braille cell, the dots are, from top to bottom, four, five, and six. 

The foundation of his code was the first ten letters of the alphabet.  Once he had the dots set for the first ten letters (letters “a” through “j”), he added to each of these initial letters dot three for the next ten letters (“k” through “t”).  Then, in the third row of the braille alphabet, Louis braille added dots three and six to the first five letters to create the last five letters of the braille alphabet–“u” through “z,” minus the letter “w” which was not used in French during the time of Louis Braille.  Later, the letter “w” was formed by adding only dot six to the braille letter “j.”  Learning braille by this “row method” facilitates the learning of the dot configurations.

                To make a letter in upper case, Louis Braille placed a capital sign, only dot six, in the cell prior to the letter to be capitalized.

                For brailling the numerals one through nine and zero, Louis Braille used the number sign–dots, three, four, five, six–in a cell to indicate that the next cell or cells before a space or certain marks of punctuation would represent a number.  Again, he used the first row of the braille alphabet so that the number sign with the dot configuration for letter “a” is the numeral one; the number sign followed by the dot configuration for letter “b” is read as the numeral two, etc.  The number sign followed by the dots of the letter “j” represents zero.

                Of course, braille consists of much more; but below you will find a chart of the very basics of the braille code. 

The Foundation of Braille

The braille cell:

   * dot 1  * dot 4

   * dot 2  * dot 5

   * dot 3  * dot 6

ROW ONE:  a-j

A:  dot one

B:  dots one and two

C:  dots one and four

D:  dots one, four, five

E:  dots one, five

F:  dots one, two, four

G:  dots one, two, four, five

H:  dots one, two, five

I:  dots two, four

J:  dots two, four, five

ROW TWO:  k-t

Add dot three to each letter of the first row to form each letter of the second row of the braille alphabet.

  K:  dots one, three

L:  dots one, two, three

M:  dots one, three, four

N:  dots one, three, four, five

O:  one, three, five

P:  dots one, two, three, four

Q:  dots one, two, three, four, five

R:  dots one, two, three, five

S:  dots two, three, four

T:  dots two, three, four, five

ROW THREE:  u, v, x, y, z (and then the exception “w”)

To form each letter of the third row, add both dots three and six to the first five letters of the alphabet.

U:  dots one, three, six

V:  dots one, two, three, six

X:  dots one, three, four, six

Y:  dots one, three, four, five, six

Z:  dots one, three, five, six

W (the exception):  letter “j” plus dot six only or dots two, four, five, six

                Sometime in the 1980s, my dad made for me some braille teaching tools which I still have and use.  He cut each board to the measurement of four inches by six inches; then, he drilled six indentations into each rectangular board so that up to six marbles–representing the braille dots–could be placed into the round indentations.  Of course, Dad sanded each wood block, or braille cell, to a very smooth finish.  At a presentation about braille, I have also used gum drops to represent the braille dots.  At the end of the presentation, I told the audience that they could eat the braille dots!  Learning the tactile alphabet invented by the remarkable Louis Braille can be fun.

PAW NOTE:  Although my current Leader Dog, Willow, has never tried to read braille yet, I do recall that each of my first three Leader Dogs–Keller, Heather, and Zoe–would at times lie her head upon a braille book or braille magazine opened on my lap as if she were trying to read the dots–or at least trying to determine why I was touching the dots instead of petting the guide dog.

 With thanks for your interest in braille during National Braille Literacy Month,

Alice and leader Dog Willow

January 13, 2021, Wednesday

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