Bonnybridge woman says braille is as vital as ever for those with sight loss

Christine Moroney, who has been registered blind since the age of five, says despite the advances of new technology braille still has an important role to play.

Her comments come as today marks the anniversary of the birth of the system’s inventor Frenchman Louis Braille (1809-1852), who became blind at the age of four.

The system is based on six raised dots, arranged in two columns of three with variations of the six dots representing the letters of the alphabet, punctuation and groups of letters.

Christine, 70, who teaches braille at the Forth Valley Sensory Centre in Camelon, said: “I have been a braille user for over 60 years. It allows me to attend meetings and refer to quotes from papers easily. I can check prescription boxes and over the counter medication confidently.

“I also use a braille watch which allows me to tell the time without all around me knowing the time as well.

"I have recently purchased a device called a Hable One, which I can use with my iPhone. It makes writing email and texting easy using braille keys on the device. I do hope braille will be around for a long time to come.”

Louis Braille’s system of embossed type for the first time in history allowed people with sight loss to actively engage with the world again.

After losing his sight following an accident in his father’s workshop when he was four, Louis was sent to one of the first blind schools in Paris. There he learnt about a system originally designed to let soldiers pass instructions at night in silence. It consisted of 12 raised dots that could be combined to represent different sounds.

The young Louis experimented wtih different combinations until he found an ideal system using six dots. He worked on the scheme for several years, developing separate codes for maths and music, and in 1827 the first book in braille was published.

James Adams, director of RNIB Scotland, said: “The invention of braille is often compared to the invention of the printing press for sighted people. For thousands across the world, braille means independence, knowledge and freedom.

"Braille also lets you read out loud – a bedtime story to children, a presentation at work, sing in a choir from braille music sheets, or play games such as Monopoly, Scrabble and cards where there are braille versions available.”

Modern braille-writing equipment can connect seamlessly with personal computers and mobile devices like tablets and smartphones, while text-reading software can vocalise back to you what you’ve inputted.

"Dots, letters, numbers – it’s all just input information to a computer,” said Mr Adams.

RNIB has 10,900 braille library master files it can produce a book from. Readers can request a physical braille copy, download a title from RNIB’s reading services platform or buy an SD card with thousands of braille files available on it.