I’ve always wanted to learn Braille, as I think that it would be a very useful skill to have, but it’s unfortunately not as easy to learn as you might think. Well while we’ve all been in Lockdown, I thought that now would be a great time to try and learn it, and I thought that I would tell you five ways that i’ve been trying to teach myself Braille.

What is Braille?

For those who don’t know, Braille is a Tactile Reading and Writing system used by Blind and Visually Impaired people that uses a system of raised Dots to represent Letters, Numbers, Punctuation, Scientific Characters, Music, Computer Notation and Foreign Languages created  by Louis Braille in 1824.

Anyway, that’s enough of me rambling, here’s the five ways that i’ve been trying to teach myself Braille.

A picture of the Elegant Insights Logo.

1. Talking to friends.
Even though I had a very basic grasp of what Braille was before I started to teach myself Braille, I still needed a little bit of help to totally understand everything. Luckily talking to a few friends that use it in their daily lives, like Laura, helped me to figure out some of the things that I was still really confused about. For instance, I thought that a Full Braille Cell was like a table with three rows and two columns, when in fact, it’s actually a series of two sets of three vertical Dots.

2. Watching YouTube Videos.
Once I had a little bit more of an understanding on what Braille actually was, the next thing that I did was to read and watch as much information about it as I possibly could. Luckily, another one of my good friends, J.R Bjornson, had released a series of YouTube Videos teaching you how to write each letter of the Braille Alphabet in little easy to understand Videos, so I instantly started to watch them to try and see if I could mentally learn some of the Letters for myself.

A picture of the RNIB Braille Teaching Cube Keyring.

3. Using the Braille Teaching Cube Keyring.
The next thing that I did was order the Braille Teaching Cube Keyring from the RNIB, which is a little sliding puzzle Keyring, a little bit like a Rubiks Cube or one of those Picture Puzzles that I used to play with when I was a Child, but much, much smaller. It has multiple sides with little Bumps that can be moved around to create each Letter of the Braille Alphabet. This plus J.R’s Videos has been one of the main ways that i’ve been teaching myself Braille, as once i’ve watched one of his Videos I can recreate whatever Letter i’ve just seen by moving the little Blocks and Bumps around on the Keyring to try and physically recreate the Letter.

A picture of the RNIB Braille Alphabet Card.

4. Using a Reference Sheet.
I’ve actually been using two different kinds of Reference Sheets to help me learn Braille, the Braille Alphabet Card that came with the Braille Teaching Cube Keyring as it has every single Braille Letter plus Numbers and a few bits of Punctuation printed on it, and then a second one that i’ve created myself on my Laptop to help me memorise whichever Letter i’m currently trying to learn. For instance, that the Letter L is Dots 1, 2 and 3.

A picture of me holding my Red Cane.

5. Taking my time.
The last thing that i’ve been doing is not rushing or being too hard on myself, as I knew when I started that if I rushed to learn the entire Alphabet in one go, I would either get bored of learning or would end up forgetting everything that i’ve just learnt. So If I learn a letter a day that’s great, and if I go several days or even a week without even thinking about Braille before learning another Letter, that’s totally fine too.
There you go, that’s five ways i’ve been trying to teach myself Braille.
Have you always wanted to learn Braille too? Have you learnt any new Skills during the Lockdown? What are some of your tips for learning a new Language or Skill? Please let me know down below.

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Luke x

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