The Fascinating Things You Didn’t Know About Braille

If you’ve seen Rihanna’s album Anti, you may have noticed that the album cover features raised dots over the canvas. If you’ve neither seen nor heard of the album, don’t worry because the image is provided below.

Tidal

So if you pay close attention to the image, you’ll be able to see the raised dots. These raised dots are what you call braille. The braille on this album cover is a poem written by Chloe Mitchell called If They Let Us.

Braille is a type of tactile writing code used by people who are visually impaired. Characters are created through a series of six raised dots arranged in a 3x2 matrix. It’s important to note that braille is actually not a language, but a writing system.

1. Braille is not a language.
   Braille is a tactile writing system that can be used to read and write in nearly any language, from Chinese to Spanish.
2. Braille is the name of an asteroid.
   NASA's Deep Space 1 spacecraft made a close approach to asteroid "9969 Braille," named after Louis Braille, in 1999.
3. Braille was first created as a military code.
   French soldiers created “night writing” in 1819 to send messages in the dark. Louis Braille refined this into the modern system at age 15.
4. Literary braille comes in two types.
   Uncontracted braille spells words out letter by letter, while Contracted braille uses a shortcut system for words and phrases.
5. There is a Braille Olympics.
   The Braille Challenge happens annually where thousands of students test their reading and comprehension skills.