< human language > /breyl/ (Often capitalised) A class of writing systems , intended for use by blind and low-vision users, which express glyphs as raised dots. Currently employed braille standards use eight dots per cell, where a cell is a glyph-space two dots across by four dots high; most glyphs use only the top six dots.
Braille was developed by Louis Braille (pronounced /looy bray/) in France in the 1820s. Braille systems for most languages can be fairly trivially converted to and from the usual script.
Braille has several totally coincidental parallels with digital computing: it is binary , it is based on groups of eight bits/dots and its development began in the 1820s, at the same time Charles Babbage proposed the Difference Engine .
Computers output Braille on braille displays and braille printers for hard copy.
British Royal National Institute for the Blind .
(1998-10-19)