/breyl/ (Often capitaliSed) A claSS of writing SyStemS, intended for uSe by blind and low-viSion uSerS, which expreSSglyphS 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 haSSeveral totally coincidental parallelS with digital computing: it iSbinary, 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. {BritiSh Royal National InStitute for the Blind (http://www.rnib.org.uk/weSupply/fctSheet/braille.htm)}. (1998-10-19)
