Some blind people use magnifiers to help them read. They can also read with their fingers with a special alphabet of raised dots on stiff paper called Braille. Braille was invented by a man named Louis Braille in 1922 who wished to help blind people have the chance to read just like everyone else. Today it is possible for just about anything in print to be published in Braille. There are Braille typewriters and printers so that blind people can use computers to print out their work in Braille.
Braille is written with a combination of six raised dots on stiff white paper.
If you look at the model below, you can see how the dots are labeled. In real Braille, they are not labeled or colored in, but for this page it is there to help you learn the dot names. While it is tricky to learn Braille, it has its advantages. The dots are named from one to six. By making different combinations of the raised dots, the letters of the alphabet, numbers and punctuation marks can be formed.