1. It began when an army captain invented a code of dots so that soldiers could read in the dark.
2. Said captain and Louis Braille, for whom the modern code is named, are from France. Bam.
3. It allows anyone with vision loss to be TOTALLY independent. (Can all the mothers cry and say "Amen, praise the Lord!"?) Braille gives the blind literacy. The ability to read and write. Can you imagine living life without the ability to read? Wow, wow, wow.
4. Anything you can do in print, you can do in braille. Trigonometry, calculus, composing music, every conceivable punctuation mark. Which leads me to number 5...
5. There are separate codes for math, music, and computers. That's a lot of dots. Intense.
6. It's like a secret code!
7. Advanced braille readers finish one line of text with one hand, WHILE beginning the next line with their other hand. My brain just exploded.
8. How the heck can people do that???? (We start teaching the braille cell using tennis balls in a muffin tin. ie: A ball in the top left cup is the letter "A." Balls in the top two cups is the letter "C.")
9. Braille is such a great tool that even people with some vision use it to make their lives easier. Madeline can read enlarged print letters - but will use braille to read long passages like novels and textbooks. With braille, she can engage in public speaking with notecards like anyone else - not enormous print cue cards. Brilliant!
10. "There is a wonder in reading braille that the sighted will never know: to touch words and have them touch you back." [Jim Fiebig]
