Braille

1. Think of a four- to six-letter word, and don’t say it out loud.
2. Write your word down on the piece of paper.
3. Place one 2×3 Lego brick on the baseplate for each letter in your word, leaving a small space between each one.
4. Take your 1×1 bricks, and using the Braille alphabet below, place the 1×1 bricks on top of your 2×3 bricks where the dark circles are to form a letter. Do this for all of your letters.

Swap your board with your friend’s board, then try to read their word using the Braille alphabet. Write down the letters one by one if that’s easier.

Braille is a system of raised dots which helps people who are visually impaired read using their sense of touch. Each letter of the alphabet is represented by a six-dot pattern, called a cell, with three dots in each column that can either be raised or not raised. People read by feeling the number and location of the bumps under their fingers.

Braille can be found in many public spaces. Can you find examples of it? Look at elevators, ATMs, and signs for public washrooms.

There are actually several types of Braille. Alphabetic is the one we used earlier, but there are lots of other types as well. For example, in literary Braille, many words are represented by a single cell. This is especially useful for writing books, as it takes up less space. Try this activity again using a literary Braille chart online!