How to learn braille as an adult
Useful tools & the approach that worked for me
This year I set out to learn braille. It’s hard to say exactly when that decision happened, or what the tipping point was. But in hindsight I think it was a reaction to growing loss. Loss of books, loss of stories, loss of writing, and at some level it was also about a loss of independence. I wanted some of that back.
But how do you learn braille?
It was a journey.
Note: What follows reflects my journey as a VI person — I am not blind in the way most people think! My eyes see a world of light and colour, but my functional vision is highly variable. I get double and triple vision. Some days I can read a bit, but a lot of days I can’t.
I started by looking up organizations for the blind, like the CNIB, RNIB, and the APH. I found several with courses I could buy, but I struggled to figure out where to start.
While I was grappling with that question I downloaded an app — Braille Academy. As a VI person this proved to be an excellent tool. It uses a flashcard approach to sight-teach grade 1 braille (uncontracted), and if you pay for the full version it also teaches grade 2 (contracted). In all there are over 50 lessons, and I worked through them all.
While I was learning I also started teaching myself to write braille. I found another app, Visual Brailler. While a bit buggy and clunky to use, this let me practice typing. As I learned new letters I made up nonsense phrases to type. Any practice was good practice!
Eventually I wanted to check my typing, so yet another tool entered the picture — a webpage called ABCBraille. It lets you paste in your braille and then convert it to plain text. I challenged myself to not just check my typed braille, but also correct my mistakes. This got me reading longer phrases.
I wanted to do more writing practice, so after a lot of deliberation I bought a Hable One. That’s a bluetooth braille keypad that works with both my phone and my MacBook. It has a substantial learning curve and I still only use it for typing, but I think I will grow into it more in time. I gave myself a new challenge, and started writing short haikus and social media posts in braille.
So far much of my practice involved sight-reading, but my ability to do anything sight-intensive has hard limits. I needed (and wanted!) to start learning tactile braille. I ordered two books from The National Braille Press — a book of short stories in uncontracted braille, and a braille primer for adults called ‘Just Enough to Know Better.’ My first attempts at reading by touch were filled with frustration! After weeks of steady progress learning to sight-read braille, it felt like it took forever to figure out each letter and word by touch. (More on the tips and strategies I developed in another post.) I managed to pick out most of the grade one letters, but it was slow going.
To spice things up a bit I added one more app to my practice — Instant Braille. This app offers a few braille games, which added some fun. And while I initially wanted it for the games I eventually found myself using it a lot for the reference section. It offers a portable cheatsheet of braille symbols.
It was roughly at this point that I had a stroke of luck. I was listening to a YouTube video by a blind woman and she mentioned an organization called Hadley. I looked them up and discovered that they have a comprehensive program for learning braille, and when I reached out they connected me with a learning specialist who helped me figure out how to continue my braille education. They send me workbooks a few at a time, that I use with their online courses. They are the most marvellous people — I can’t say enough good things about them! And the fact that their programs are free to blind and VI people in the US and Canada is truly amazing.
Finally I looked into my local libraries and found one that offered support for blind and VI readers. They sent me my first full book in uncontracted braille — Steven King’s ‘On Writing.’ It’s slow going but I’m gradually working my way through it.
So those are the tools I’ve been using to learn braille. My personal approach started with sight-reading, then added some light writing practice, and then moved into touch-reading. I found a daily mix of reading and writing practice helped me a lot.
If you’re wondering where to start learning braille for yourself, I highly recommend calling Hadley. And if like me you are VI and have some sight, I found the Braille Academy app a very useful place to start learning.
I hope this helps you find good tools to support you on your own journey. Learning braille takes time and practice but it’s possible at any age — I’m living proof!
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[100% composed using my Hable One!]
