Tactile alphabets for the blind
Encyclopedia
Braille
The Braille system is a method that is widely used by blind people to read and write, and was the first digital form of writing.Braille was devised in 1825 by Louis Braille, a blind Frenchman. Each Braille character, or cell, is made up of six dot positions, arranged in a rectangle containing two...
system is the most popular and some materials have been prepared in Moon type
Moon type
The Moon System of Embossed Reading is a writing system for the blind, using embossed symbols mostly derived from the Roman alphabet...
, historically there have been a large number of other tactile alphabets:
- Systems based on embossed Roman letters:
- Valentin HaüyValentin HaüyValentin Haüy - 19 March 1822 in Paris) was the founder, in 1784, of the first school for the blind, the Royal Institution for the Young Blind in Paris . In 1819, Louis Braille entered this school....
's system, based on embossed Roman characters (in italicItalic scriptItalic script, also known as chancery cursive, is a semi-cursive, slightly sloped style of handwriting and calligraphy that was developed during the Renaissance in Italy...
style) - James GallJames GallJames Gall was a Scottish clergyman who founded the Carrubbers Close Mission. As well as writing on religious matters, often from a rather unorthodox standpoint, he had an interest in astronomy...
's "triangular alphabet," using both capital and lower-case Roman letters, which was used in 1826 in the first embossed books published in EnglishEnglish languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria... - Edmund Frye's system (based on capital letters only)
- John Alston's system (also based on capital letters only)
- Jacob Snider, Jr.'s system, using rounded letters similar to Haüy's system, which was used in a publication of the Gospel of MarkGospel of MarkThe Gospel According to Mark , commonly shortened to the Gospel of Mark or simply Mark, is the second book of the New Testament. This canonical account of the life of Jesus of Nazareth is one of the three synoptic gospels. It was thought to be an epitome, which accounts for its place as the second...
in 1834, the first embossed book in the United StatesUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. - Samuel Gridley HoweSamuel Gridley HoweSamuel Gridley Howe was a nineteenth century United States physician, abolitionist, and an advocate of education for the blind.-Early life and education:...
's Boston LineBoston line letterBoston line letter was a tactile writing system created by Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe in 1835, a popular precursor to the now-standardized Braille.- History :...
using lowercase angulat letters, influenced by Gall's system but more closely resembling standard Roman letters - Julius Reinhold FriedlanderJulius Reinhold FriedlanderJulius Reinhold Friedlander was the first superintendent of the Overbrook School for the Blind in 1832.-Biography:He was born in 1803. He fought for Greek independence from Turkey and in 1832 he became the first superintendent of the Overbrook School for the Blind. He died in 1839.-References:...
's Philadelphia Line, using all capital letters, similar to Alston's system, used at the Pennsylvania Institution for the Instruction of the Blind in Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaPhiladelphia, PennsylvaniaPhiladelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,... - William Chapin (also at the Pennsylvania Institution)'s system, combining the lowercase letters of the Boston Line with the capitals of the Philadelphia Line, forming the "combined system" (used by 1868 in books printed by N. B. Kneass, Jr.)
- Valentin Haüy
- Systems based on arbitrary symbols:
- Thomas Lucas (shorthand)'s system, based on shorthandShorthandShorthand is an abbreviated symbolic writing method that increases speed or brevity of writing as compared to a normal method of writing a language. The process of writing in shorthand is called stenography, from the Greek stenos and graphē or graphie...
and phonetic principles - James Hatley FrereJames Hatley Frere-Life:Frere was the sixth son of John Frere, of Roydon, South Norfolk, and Beddington, Surrey, by Jane, daughter and heiress of John Hookham of London. He married, 15 June 1809, Merian, second daughter of Matthew Martin, F.R.S., of Poets' Corner, Westminster, by whom he had five sons.Frere met...
's system, similar to Lucas's in that it was based on shorthand, but written in a boustrophedonBoustrophedonBoustrophedon , is a type of bi-directional text, mostly seen in ancient manuscripts and other inscriptions. Every other line of writing is flipped or reversed, with reversed letters. Rather than going left-to-right as in modern English, or right-to-left as in Arabic and Hebrew, alternate lines in...
manner - New York PointNew York PointNew York Point is a system of writing for the blind invented by William Bell Wait , a teacher in the New York Institute for the Education of the Blind. The system used three bases of equidistant points arranged in two horizontal lines with one, two, three or four points in each line...
, a system of points invented by William Bell WaitWilliam Bell WaitWilliam Bell Wait was a teacher in the New York Institute for the Education of the Blind who invented New York Point, a system of writing for the blind that enjoyed wide use in the United States before the Braille system was universally adopted there. Mr...
, that competed with braille for some time before braille won out
- Thomas Lucas (shorthand)'s system, based on shorthand