<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.
