Braille System – Light | Class 8 Physics

Braille is a system developed by Louis Braille in 1824 to help visually challenged people. It is a code by which languages such as English, French, Spanish, etc can be written and read by people that have defects in there eyes. This code consists of raised dots, that can be read with fingers by blind people. It is a widely used system across the globe and is a very important invention.

Visual Impairment

Visual impairment refers to the loss of a person’s ability to see or any defect in human eye. This cannot be corrected by using conventional spectacles or contact lenses. A blind person or a person dealing with absolute vision loss is termed as visually impaired.

Causes of Blindness

• Refractive Errors: The disturbance in the path of light inside the eye is known as refractive error. It means that the light does not bend properly inside the eye, leading to the formation of blurred images. The major types of refractive errors include Myopia (nearsightedness), Hypermetropia (farsightedness), presbyopia(loss of near vision with age).
• Cataract: The formation of a white milky layer over the eye is known as a Cataract. It blocks the light from entering the eye.

What is Braille System?

Louis Braille who suffered from visual impairment, came up with the idea to develop the braille system. The aim was to help blind people to read, learn and write like a normal person. It is a system consisting of raised dots on the pages that can be read with the fingers by blind people. Braille is a code by which many languages – such as English, French, Spanish, Japanese, and many other languages including Indian languages can be written and read. Mathematical equations and scientific notations can also be represented using this system. Braille is used by millions of people throughout the globe.

Braille Script

Braille symbols are represented inside units of space known as Braille cells. A full cell consists of a set of six raised dots arranged in the form of a 2  3 matrices. 64 different combinations can be created by using one or more dots. Each cell is used to represent an alphabet, a number, a punctuation mark, or a special symbol. 

The Braille script for 26 alphabets and 10 numeric digits are as follow:

Braille System

Sample Problems

Question 1: Convert the statement “I LOVE GEEKSFORGEEKS” into Braille Script.

Solution:

Each letter of the given statement corresponding to its Braille script is as follows:

Question 2: Write the sentence, “I LIKE BRAILLE” into Braille Script.

Solution:

Each letter of the given statement corresponding to its Braille script is as follows: