Braillemerkistön

Braillemerkistö, commonly known as Braille, is a tactile writing system used by people who are visually impaired. It was developed by Louis Braille in France in the 1820s. The system uses a series of raised dots arranged in a six-dot cell, known as a Braille cell. Each dot can be raised or left flat, creating different combinations that represent letters, numbers, punctuation marks, and even musical notes.

The Braille cell is arranged in two columns of three dots each. There are 64 possible combinations of raised and flat dots within a single cell. These combinations are assigned specific meanings. For example, a single raised dot in the top left position represents the letter 'a'. A combination of dots in the top left and middle left positions represents the letter 'b'.

Braille is read by passing the fingertips over the raised dots. The tactile nature of the system allows visually impaired individuals to read and write independently. It is a crucial tool for literacy and education, enabling access to books, documents, and other written information. Braille is not a language itself but rather a code that can represent any language. Specialized Braille codes exist for different languages and subjects like mathematics and music.