Can You Feel Me Now? Trivia Quiz

Answer: w

The French alphabet in Louis Braille's time did not included the letter w.

Answer: cell

In the Braille cell, the dots are arranged in two vertical lines, 3 dots in each line. The dots are then numbered from top to bottom, starting with 1,2, 3 on the left and 4,5, 6 on the right.

The Braille cell is arranged as follows:

dot 1 * * dot 4
dot 2 * * dot 5
dot 3 * * dot 6

Braille is then made by the inclusion or exclusion of these dots. For example, to make an "a", a person would Braille dot 1; for a "b", dots 1 and 2 are used and so forth. To Braille an "a", only one key (the key for dot 1) is Brailled. To produce a "b", the keys for dots 1 and 2 are pushed down simultaneously. To Braille an "e", then, you need to push down keys for 1 and 5 since an "e" is made with dots 1 and 5.

Answer: because uncontracted Braille would cause Braille books to be very cumbersome

There are over 300 different contractions used in Braille. The use of these contractions has greatly reduced the amount of paper and space required to produce Braille material.

Answer: it and as

Remember that Braille was developed in France. Some of the more interesting (in my opinion) of the use of whole word signs are as follows:

j = just
k = knowledge
p = people
q = quite
r = rather
v = very

Answer: the

These major whole word signs can stand for the word themselves or they can also be part of other words. For example, in the word "forget", the "for" sign can be used followed by the letters "g", "e" and "t". In the word "Wanda", you would Braille "W", then "and" sign followed by "a".

These major whole word signs are also called super contractions because they are preferred over other contractions in Braille.

Answer: gd

Other interesting short form words include:

also = al
across = acr
always = alw
could = cd
either = ei
friend = fr
him = hm
quick = qk
said = sd

Answer: double helix

In the Braille alphabet, an "a" is a small letter "a" unless the capital sign (dot 6) is placed in front of it. If you need to capitalize an entire word, such as NOT, then two dot 6s are placed in front followed by the dots for "n", "o", and "t". Other common compostion signs are:

comma = dot 2
apostrophe = dot 3
colon = dots 3,5
semi colon = dots 2,3
exclamation mark = dots 2, 3, 5
numeral sign = dots 3, 4, 5, 6

Answer: Nemeth Braille Code for Mathematics and Science Notation

in 1952, Abraham Nemeth developed the Nemeth Braille code for Mathematics and Science Notation out of frustration at being unable to access this information on his own. Being blind since birth, Nemeth found that although the mathematical and scientific information could be read orally to him, being able to read the information on his own was preferrable. What he developed was and is truly amazing. With this special code, visually impaired individuals can read and Braille simple mathematical notations such as fractions or set notation on up to quadratic formulas and beyond. I learned this code and often produced material in it even though a lot of the concepts were beyond my comprehension!

Answer: Geography

Even though there is not specialized code for geography, visually impaired persons obtain information from this area through tactile representations and verbal and written descriptions.

Answer: false

Among many options, Braille can be produced on a Perkins Brailler (developed by David Abraham at the Perkins School for the Blind in Boston, MA in 1951), on a slate(hand held template) and a stylus(writing instruments that is pointed on one end), a Braille embosser (specialized piece of equipment used to print Braille from computer files) or a refreshable Braille display (the dots "pop up" to create words and then recede and make new ones).