Hi guys!
I always had enough vision that I never felt the need of learning Braille. I'm 22 and wish to learn it now. I need to make frequent presentations in my class, and for now, I try and memorize all the stuff I need to present. It's a difficult and time consuming task, I'm thinking maybe learning Braille could help me in this regard. I see myself in professions which might need frequent public speaking.

What do you guys suggest? Is learning Braille a good idea at this point? How long will it take and how efficient can I get? I have read on this forum that it is very difficult and you can't get very good at it, if you start leaning it at an advanced age.

All feedback is welcome.

Regards

Hi,

Braille is made up of 6 cells; 3 on one side of the 6 dots and 3 on the other side of the 6 dots.

So you have:-

.1    .4

.2    .5

.3    .6

All you need to do to learn the first 10 letters of the alphabet and then add .3 for the next 10 letters and .6 for the last 6 letters (W comes at the end)

Dot 1 is A

Dots 1 and 2 is B

Dots 1 and 4 is C

Dots 1, 3 & 4 is D

Dots 1 & 5 is E

Dots 1, 2 & 3 is F

Dots 1, 2, 4 & 5 is G

Dots 1, 2 & 5 is H

Dots 2 & 4 is I

Dots 2, 4 & 5 is J

N.B: If you put a number sign in front of the first 10 letters - a BLE sign - Dots 3, 4, 5 & 6 - A (Dot 1) becomes number 1. So B becomes 2, and J is zero..

If you add a Dot 3 to Dot 1 it becomes K (originally A)

Therefore Dots 1 & 2 (B) and add Dot 3 - becomes L

So you do this until you get to J and add Dot 3 - becomes T

To get the next 6 letters all you need to do is add a Dot 6.

So Dot 1 (A)

Add Dot 3 - becomes K

Add Dot 6 - becomes U

So B - becomes V and so on.

So when you get to J:

Add Dot 3 - becomes T

Add Dot 6 to Dots 2, 4 and 5 - becomes W.

If you press dots 1, 2, 3, 4 & 6 together - AND sign

If you press all 6 dots together - FOR sign

If you press dots 1, 3, 4, 5 & 6 together - YOU sign

If you press dots 1, 2, 3, 5 & 6 - Of sign

If you press dots 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6 together - WITH sign.

Once you have learned the alphabet, there are combinations of dots which are contractions; i.e. dot 6 with N - Nation....

I learned to type and read to grade 2 in about 6 months, generally about 3 days a week. I had a set of tapes whereby I had to type a number of words on a single line which included a certain contraction such as dis, etc. I used a Perkins to type on braille paper. A friend checked my work once a week and I learned a new contraction for the following week.

I hope this helps you.

I believe you can purchase braille learning materials from the RNIB; 03031239999