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Free Self-Paced Course

Learn to Read Braille

18 short lessons take you from a single dot to reading contracted braille. You write every character yourself, then practice with interactive games. Free, no account required. Pick up right where you left off.

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  1. Orientation

    Meet the braille cell and learn how its six dots are numbered.

    1. 1The Braille CellHow the six-dot cell is arranged and numbered.

  2. Grade 1 · The Alphabet

    Learn all 26 letters in the order braille was designed to be learned.

    1. 2Letters a–jThe first ten letters, the foundation of the whole system.
    2. 3Letters k–ta–j again, plus dot 3.
    3. 4Letters u–zThe final letters, and w, the famous exception.
    4. 5Reading Your First WordsPut letters together and read whole words.

  3. Capitals, Numbers & Punctuation

    Capital letters, numbers and punctuation marks: everything you need to read a whole sentence.

    1. 6Capital LettersThe capital letter indicator and how it works.
    2. 7Words in CapitalsCapitalized words, capitalized passages, and the capitals terminator.
    3. 8NumbersThe numeric indicator, and how digits reuse a–j.
    4. 9Numbers in Real TextCommas and decimals, times and ranges, and letters after numbers.
    5. 10Punctuation BasicsPeriod, comma, question mark, exclamation mark and apostrophe.
    6. 11More PunctuationQuotation marks, hyphen and dash, parentheses, colon, semicolon and slash.

  4. Grade 2 · Contractions

    The shortcuts that make braille fast to read and write.

    1. 12Alphabet WordsignsSingle letters that stand for whole words.
    2. 13Strong ContractionsOne-cell shortcuts for the most common words.
    3. 14Strong GroupsignsSingle cells for common letter groups like ch and th.
    4. 15Lower GroupsignsContractions written in the lower part of the cell.
    5. 16Lower WordsignsWhole words written in the lower part of the cell.

  5. Bring It Together

    Read real sentences and plan your next steps.

    1. 17Reading Contracted SentencesCombine letters and contractions into full sentences.
    2. 18Wrap-Up & Next StepsCelebrate, and choose where to go next.
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