A tactile alphabet is a system for writing material that the blind can read by touch. While currently the

Braille Braille (Pronounced: ) is a tactile writing system used by people who are visually impaired, including people who are blind, deafblind or who have low vision. It can be read either on embossed paper or by using refreshable braille displ ...

system is the most popular and some materials have been prepared in

Moon type The Moon System of Embossed Reading (commonly known as the Moon writing, Moon alphabet, Moon script, Moon type, or Moon code) is a writing system for the blind, using embossed symbols mostly derived from the Latin script (but simplified). It is ...

, historically, many other tactile alphabets have existed: *Systems based on embossed Roman letters: **

Valentin Haüy Valentin Haüy (pronounced ; 13 November 1745 – 19 March 1822) was the founder, in 1785, of the first school for the blind, the Institute for Blind Youth in Paris (now Institut National des Jeunes Aveugles, or the ''National Institute for the ...

's system (in italic style) ** James Gall's "triangular alphabet", using both capital and lower-case, which was used in 1826 in the first embossed books published in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

** Edmund Frye's system (capital letters only) ** John Alston's system (capital letters only) ** Jacob Snider, Jr.'s system, using rounded letters similar to Haüy's system, which was used in a publication of the

Gospel of Mark The Gospel of Mark), or simply Mark (which is also its most common form of abbreviation). is the second of the four canonical gospels and of the three synoptic Gospels. It tells of the ministry of Jesus from his baptism by John the Baptist to h ...

in 1834, the first embossed book in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. **

Samuel Gridley Howe Samuel Gridley Howe (November 10, 1801 – January 9, 1876) was an American physician, abolitionist, and advocate of education for the blind. He organized and was the first director of the Perkins Institution. In 1824 he had gone to Greece to ...

's Boston Line using lowercase angular letters, influenced by Gall's system but more closely resembling standard Roman letters **

Julius Reinhold Friedlander Julius Reinhold Friedlander (1803–1839) was a German-American educator. He was the founder of the Pennsylvania Institution for the Instruction of the Blind in Philadelphia, which later became the Overbrook School for the Blind. Biography Juli ...

's Philadelphia Line, using all capital letters, similar to Alston's system, used at the

Pennsylvania Institution for the Instruction of the Blind The Overbrook School for the Blind in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was established in 1832. Its present site, in the city's Overbrook neighborhood, was acquired in 1890. Along with the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf, the Western Pennsylvania S ...

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...

**William Chapin (also at the Pennsylvania Institution)'s system, combining the lowercase letters of the Boston Line with the capitals of the Philadelphia Line, forming the "combined system" (used by 1868 in books printed by N. B. Kneass, Jr.) ** Elia Chepaitis's ELIA Frame tactile alphabet/font system includes the major characteristics of the Roman alphabet letter within a frame. The frame denotes where the letter begins and ends and allows for systematic exploration. The use of the Roman alphabet's features in the design helps previously sighted people learn it. And its similarities to standard Roman fonts helps sighted caregivers to learn and share the alphabet with people who have a visual impairment.http://abstracts.iovs.org/cgi/content/abstract/46/5/4590/ *Systems based on arbitrary symbols: **

Night writing Night writing is the name given to a form of writing invented by Charles Barbier as one of a dozen forms of alternative writing presented in a book published in 1815: ''Essai sur Divers Procédés D'Expéditive Française, Contenant douze écrit ...

Thomas Lucas Thomas Lucas (c.1720–1784) MP, was a West India merchant, treasurer of Guy's Hospital 1764–1774 and then president of its board of governors until his death. Business interests His directorships included the Union Society in 1759, the Sout ...

's system, based on

shorthand Shorthand is an abbreviated symbolic writing method that increases speed and brevity of writing as compared to longhand, a more common method of writing a language. The process of writing in shorthand is called stenography, from the Greek ''s ...

and phonetic principles **

James Hatley Frere James Hatley Frere (1779–1866) was an English writer on prophecy and developer of a tactile alphabet system for teaching the blind to read. Life Frere was the sixth son of John Frere, of Roydon, South Norfolk, and Beddington, Surrey, by Jane ...

's system, similar to Lucas's in that it was based on shorthand, but written in a

boustrophedon Boustrophedon is a style of writing in which alternate lines of writing are reversed, with letters also written in reverse, mirror-style. This is in contrast to modern European languages, where lines always begin on the same side, usually the le ...

manner **

New York Point New York Point (New York Point: ) is a braille-like system of tactile writing for the blind invented by William Bell Wait (1839–1916), a teacher in the New York Institute for the Education of the Blind. The system used one to four pairs of poi ...

, a system of points invented by

William Bell Wait William Bell Wait (1839–1916) was a teacher in the New York Institute for the Education of the Blind who invented New York Point, a system of writing for the blind that was adopted widely in the United States before the braille system was univers ...

, that competed with braille for some time before braille won out **

Decapoint Decapoint, or ''raphigraphy'', was a tactile form of the Latin script invented by Louis Braille as a system that could be used by both the blind and sighted. It was published in 1839. Letters retained their linear form, and so were legible witho ...

External links

* riginal from Columbia University Digitized Aug 18, 2009GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, LD., ST JOHN'S HOUSE, CLERKENWELL ROAD, LONDON, E.C.]
A Critical Evaluation of the Historical Development of the Tactile Modes and Reading and an Analysis and Evaluation of Researches Carried out in Endeavors to make the Braille code Easier to Read and to Write
* Virtual Exhibition "Signs - Books - Networks" of the German Museum of Books and Writing

{{reflisthttp://abstracts.iovs.org/cgi/content/abstract/46/5/4590 Tactile alphabets,

See also

External links