How do the blind enjoy the books we take so much for granted?  The books on tapes have been a great advancement for the nonseeing, but somehow that is not the same as being able to read a story on your own.  You can't picture the voice inflections that make the story come alive for you.

According to the American College Dictionary the definition of Braille is "a system of writing or printing for the blind, in which combinations of tangible dots or points are used to represent letters."  It is a foreign language to those of us that  have not learned it.  It was devised by Louis Braille in 1821 and it revolutionized communication for the blind.

It is read by touch.  Raised dots are arranged in cellos with up to six dots per cell.  Each cell represents a letter, number or punctuation mark, and the combined cells create a word just like you are using to read this.

There are three grades of Braille depending on where you are in learning and what you will be using it for.  The first grade is the simplest using just the 26 letters and punctuation marks.  The second grade is more complicated as it gets into contractions.  The third grade is like a shorthand that can be used for journals or diaries.

It is used in different languages and even with musical notations and mathematical equations.