Scripts for the blind

Scripts for the blind use raised positions of paper to make feeling the symbols possible. Best known today is Braille which used raised dots in a formation of 2 wide and 3 (later also 4) high, but there are also other codes. The following Braille codes are displayed here:

Standard Braille
American Modified Braille
US computer Braille
US extended computer Braille
Euro computer Braille
ISO8859-1 Braille
Russian Braille
Greek Braille
Hebrew Braille
Arab Braille
Japanese Braille
Korean Braille
Chinese Braille
Braille ASCII
Unicode

Also the following non-Braille code:

New York Point System

Standard Braille

Braille is a code used for the blind. Codes consist of 1 to 6 palpable points out of six possible positions. (Fairly recently the number of possible points has been augmented to eight, but I have not yet seen standard codes for that.) The different codes for the Latin script give differences with respect to the letters with diacriticals, I give here the most standard code I have been able to find. Also in a large number of cases contractions are used, but these are language and public dependent, so I will not give them here.
The first ten rows of the table below give the standard ordering. With this the letters have a point in the upper row and the left column, the columns are distinguished by the points in the lower row. The fifth column is for puncutation marks and copies the first column, but every code is positioned downwards.
The next three rows give the other codes, I have put them there in this order to fit the framework, but normally they are given in two additional columns with a different order.
Note: when Braille devised this code for French, the W was an unimportant letter, that is the reason for the strange position of that letter. Also the most important codes have a dot in the left top or left middle position to simplify recognition. Punctuation is in general with two Braille signs, the table comes after the general table.

A or 1	K	U	Â	,
B or 2	L	V	Ê	;
C or 3	M	X	Î	:
D or 4	N	Y	Ô	.
E or 5	O	Z	Û	?
F or 6	P	Ç	Ë	!
G or 7	Q	É	Ï	( or )
H or 8	R	À	Ü	quote open
I or 9	S	È	Ö	*
J or 0	T	Ù	W	quote close
accent sign	Ì	Ò	decimal point, emphasis	prefix for contractions
space	Ä	numeric indicator	cursive indicator	correction sign
	apostrophe	-	capital indicator

American Modified Braille

While initially most reading in the US was done with embossed letters, here also Braille was introduced, but it was largely replaced by two competing different systems. One is American Modified Braille as displayed here, the other is the New York Point System, displayed further down. American Braille was invented in 1878 by Joel W. Smith. While later than the New York Point system it also received a huge following. It was thought to be superior to standard Braille as some scientific thought had gone in the design, but like the New York Point System, in 1916 it was replaced by standard Braille. The only difference with standard Braille is the assignment of code points. I will show the table in a form similar to that for standard Braille. Codes marked with an ellipses are codes not used for single symbols. I do not know how the digits were assigned in this code.

A	S	U	...	E
T	L	V	B	;
R	M	...	P	-
D	...	J	...	?
O	...	...	...	...
F	...	...	...	...
G	Q	...	Z	( or )
H	K	X	...	quote
I	...	...	...	...
C	...	!	W	:
accent sign	...	N	...	...
space	Y	...	...	...
	,	capital indicator	...

US computer Braille

Much later in the US a different version came in use with special placed digits (the letters A to J lowered one position), for use with computers. This one is also used for mathematical texts as the Nemeth code.

A	K	U	*	1
B	L	V	<	2
C	M	X	%	3
D	N	Y	?	4
E	O	Z	:	5
F	P	&	$	6
G	Q	=	]	7
H	R	(	\	8
I	S	!	[	9
J	T	)	W	0
@	/	+	.	"
^	>	#	capital indicator	;
	'	-	,

US extended computer Braille

Later an extended version was introduced with the use of dot 7, the standard only encodes the printable characters from ASCII. The symbols that show an ellipsis where undefined.

...

}

...

]

...

(

...

{

...

[

...

)

...

;

...

Euro computer Braille

The European computer Braille code has a different position for the digits.

A	K	U	1	,
B	L	V	2	;
C	M	X	3	:
D	N	Y	4	/
E	O	Z	5	?
F	P	&	6	+
G	Q	%	7	=
H	R	{	8	(
I	S	~	9	*
J	T	}	W	)
"	\|	0	$	!
>	`	#	capital indicator	<
	.	-	'

ISO8859-1 Braille

In Europe work is underway to have a standard mapping from ISO8859-1 to Braille, but there is not yet a standard. Below is a proposal (note that also dot 8 is used in this mapping).

SS3

SOH

NAK

{

;

STS

STX

SYN

IND

ETX

CAN

NBS

EOT

EOM

C153

ENQ

SUB

ESC

SSA

ACK

DLE

ESA

BEL

DC1

NUL

PLU

(

DC2

[

DCS

SCI

DC3

HTJ

OSC

C128

)

DC4

APC

ETB

]

SOS

NBH

PU1

SS2

PU2

C129

PLD

BPH

CSI

CCH

VTS

}

HTS

SPA

NEL

EPA

DEL

SHY

Below you will find the back translation:

There is a strict mapping between lowercase and uppercase, except (strange enough) for the Icelandic Ð, Þ and Ý, these are not distinguished by dot 7.

Russian Braille

I do not know whether the punctuation is correct, also I do not know all.

A	K	U	YO	1
B	L	...?	<	2
TS	M	SHCH	%	3
D	N	...?	?	4
IE	O	Z	SH	5
F	P	J	YA	6
G	CH	=	...?	7
H	R	Hard sign	YU	8
I	S	Yeru	E	9
ZH	T	Soft sign	V	0
"	/	+	.	...?
;	>	#	PLD	...?
	'	-	,

Greek Braille

Some codes are used for combinations of two vowels that occur frequently in Greek. Numbers are encoded as in standard Braille.

Alfa	Kappa	Omicron+Upsilon	Alfa+Upsilon	.
Beta	Lambda	...?	Alfa+Iota	...?
...?	Mu	Xi	Epsilon+Iota	...?
Delta	Nu	Upsilon	Theta	...?
Epsilon	Omicron	Zeta	Epsilon+Upsilon	...?
Phi	Pi	Psi	...?	...?
Gamma	\|	...?	Upsilon+Iota	square brackets
Chi	Ro	{	Eta+Upsilon	...?
Iota	Sigma	+	Omicron+Iota	...?
Omega	Tau	}	...?	...?
...?	/	...?	capital letter	Tonos
...?	Eta	numeric indicator	...?	...?
	,	...?	...?

Hebrew Braille

Numbers are encoded as in standard Braille.

Aleph	...?	...?	Khaf	,
...?	Lamed	Beth	...?	;
...?	Mem	Chet	Shin	:
Dalet	Nun	...?	Taw	.
...?	...?	Zain	...?	?
Pe	%	&	Ayin	!
Gimel	Qof	tab	...?	parenthesis
He	Reeh	...?	\	acronym
...?	Samech	Zade	bracket	-
Yod	Tet	...?	Wam	...?
...?	...?	...?	decimal place	...?
...?	...?	numeric indicator	\|	...?
	'	...?	...?

Arab Braille

Numbers are encoded as in standard Braille.

Alf	Kaf	Damma	Teh Marbuta	Fatha
Beh	Lam	...	Ghain	Tanwin Fatha
...	Meem	Chah	Sheen	Sukun
Dal	Nun	Hamza+Yeh	Theh	.
Kasra	Alf Maksura	Zain	Hah	Tanwin Damma
Feh	...	Sad	Dad	+
...	Qaf	Zah	...	parenthesis
Heh	Reh	Ain	Hamza+Waw	?
Yeh	Seen	Thal	...	Tanwin Kasr
Jeem	Teh	Tah	Waw	...
...	Hamza+Alf	...	...	,
...	Alf Mamduda	numeric indicator	...	...
	Hamza	-	Shadda

Japanese Braille

The basic Japanese Braille code is very logical. It has been created by Kuraji Ishikawa. Because of the differences in phonology and orthography between English and Japanese the code is also very different. Normally Japanese is written using three kinds of symbols, Hanji, Hiragana and Katakana. The Hanji are in general Chinese characters, sometimes newly invented ones, and sometimes simplified. In Japanese there are in general two different pronunciations of a Hanji (readings), where one is based on the original meaning and the other on the original pronunciation. In Chinese however a word does not change when used in different contexts, so there is no conjugation of verbs like in English. On the other hand, such changes are standard in Japanese and play a crucial role. For this reason the Japanese invented the Hiragana (in general based on extremely symplified Chinese cursive characters) to add word endings. The Hiragana form a syllable script where in general each symbol represents a consonant followed by a vowel. This script could be used to write Japanese in full, but that is never done. In addition there is a similar script Katakana, which is based on block form of simplified Chinese characters. This is used to represent foreign words, but is also used to write words or texts that need emphasis. This is also the script used when only a small set of characters is available; so below I represent the coding in this script.

The basic coding is to use the three dots in the upper left corner to represent a vowel and those in the lower right corner to represent a consonant. These are combined to give a syllable. The table below is based on the structural properties of the kana syllable table. The first five columns give the base table, the remaining three (using other variations in the upper left corner) represents the remainder. The symbols marked you-on, tyou-on, daku-on and han-daku-on are used as prefixes to modify the consonant value. Some have an explicit symbol in Katakana, that is appended to the base signs, the others are small versions of base Katakana following the base symbol (note that in Braille they are prefixes!). Also you-on can combine with the daku-on, and in that case the Braille code is merged. The code marked special is a prefix only used with TU, also making a sound variation.

The table is presented with the Braille code, the Japanese Katakana character (when relevant) and its Romanisation. The Romanisation used here is the one preferred by the Japanese government, there is also a different one, the Hepburn Romanisation, where, for instance, TI is romanised as CHI. This more or less follows the actual pronunciation rather than the structural table. Digits are encoded as in standard Braille.

A I U E O small YA, YO or YU
you-on small TU
soku-on

KA KI KU KE KO you-on +
han-daku-on question
mark han-daku-on

SA SI SU SE SO special period latin letter

TA TI TU TE TO YO exclamation
mark WO

NA NI NU NE NO YA comma WA

HA HI HU HE HO YU start
English quote

MA MI MU ME MO numeric
indicator bracket open
or close N

RA RI RU RE RO you-on +
daku-on vowel lengthening
tyou-on daku-on

Korean Braille

This code was constructed initially by Doo-Sung Park. The digits are encoded the same way as in standard given on top. Some diphtongues have no special encoding. Initial and final encodings of the consonants differ only by a shift to the left or a shift down. The initial encoding of Ieung is reserved, but not used (that consonant does not occur in initial position). Only three graphics are encoded, of these the exclamation mark is sometimes used as an escape for other grpahics. The codings not given are used for abbreviations.

Consonants

Vowels

Symbols

Initial

Final

Base

With I

Other

With I

Kiyeok

Nieun

YAE

Tikeut

numeric
indicator

Rieul

YEO

Mieum

WAE

Pieup

Sios

WEO

Ieung

Cieuc

Chieuch

Khieukh

Thieuth

Phieuph

Hieuh

Chinese Braille

In Chinese Braille sounds are coded rather than symbols. For this purpose a syllable is analysed as an initial sound, a final sound and a tone. These are encoded in order, but the tone is omitted in many cases, it is only added to avoid confusion. The sounds are given below in Pinyin transcription. Note: in quite a few cases (especially the finals) two possibilities are given, however the initial will in general disambiguate because not all finals can occur after all initials. Initials are postfixed with a hyphen, finals are prefixed with a hyphen. I do not know how numerals are written, probably they are written out.

tone 1 (high)	K- Q-	-WU -U	-YING -ING	tone 2 (rising)
B-	L-	-AN	-YIN -IN	tone 4 falling
C-	M-	-YANG -IANG	-YAN -IAN	-WEN -UN
D-	N-	-WAI -UAI	-YONG -IONG	-WENG -ONG
-YE -IE	-WO -UO	Z-	SH-	-O -E
F-	P-	-YUAN -UAN	-YA -IA	-AO
G- J-	CH-	-WA -UA	-WAN -UAN	-WANG -UANG
H- X-	-ER	-OU	-YOU -IU	-ANG
-YI -I	S-	-EI	-AI	-A
R-	T-	-YUE -UE	-WEI -UI	-EN
pause	ZH-	-YU -U		puctuation indicator
	-YAO -IAO	-ENG	-YUN -UN	puncuation indicator
	tone 3 (falling/rising)		punctuation indicator

punctuation table

	,
	:
	?
	.
	...
	;
	!
	(
	[ or ]
	middle dot
	)
	-

Braille ASCII

When stored on a computer, or in transmission, in the US the code above was generally used. It is called Braille ASCII, it is based on the US Braille code as shown above.

Unicode

When Unicode did incorporate Braille into its code (with version 3.0) the above mapping was not used, rather the code looked at the (eight) Braille code points from a pure binary standpoint and encoded it as such. The lowest row is the additional row.

New York Point System

In 1868 William B. Wait devised a quite dissimilar encoding for the blind with (what was later called) the New York Point System. It was quite popular, although there was later on competition from American Modified Braille (see above). Wait thought that two rows of dots would work better, so he devised a code were symbols were encoded in two rows of dots that could be one to four dots wide. I am not yet quite sure how encoding was done. Obviously codes that have an embedded non-dot both in the upper row and in the lower row can not be used (it could easily be confused with two symbols following each other). Those codes are hatched in the tables below. Another problem is that if you have a code that is actually three dots wide in the four dots wide code-table you can shift it. In the tables one of the possible codes for such switchings is taken as major, while the other codes have a red cross. Finally the smaller codes serve double, or sometimes even triple, purpose. One as lower case letter, another as punctuation mark and a third as digit. I do not know how these usages are distinguished. It is all shown in three charts.
The chart below shows the letters, and some punctuation symbols that do not conflict with the letters. The entries of the columns have the same dot configuration on top, and the entries of the rows have it at the bottom.

The next chart shows punctuation, they all fit in codes at most three dots wide.

And the last chart shows the digits, at most two dots wide.

You may notice that the two dot wide code with two dots below and one dot at the right on top encodes three symbols: lower case e, the exclamation mark and the digit 3. Unmarked positions in the code were used for contractions.