The Gardner–Salinas braille codes are a method of encoding mathematical and scientific notation linearly using

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 display ...

cells for tactile reading by the visually impaired. The most common form of Gardner–Salinas braille is the 8-cell variety, commonly called ''GS8''. There is also a corresponding 6-cell form called ''GS6''. The codes were developed as a replacement for Nemeth Braille by

John A. Gardner John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second ...

, a physicist at

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, and Norberto Salinas, an Argentinian mathematician. The Gardner–Salinas braille codes are an example of a compact human-readable

markup language Markup language refers to a text-encoding system consisting of a set of symbols inserted in a text document to control its structure, formatting, or the relationship between its parts. Markup is often used to control the display of the document ...

. The syntax is based on the

LaTeX Latex is an emulsion (stable dispersion) of polymer microparticles in water. Latexes are found in nature, but synthetic latexes are common as well. In nature, latex is found as a milky fluid found in 10% of all flowering plants (angiosper ...

system for scientific typesetting.

Table of Gardner–Salinas 8-dot (GS8) braille

The set of lower-case letters, the period, comma, semicolon, colon, exclamation mark, apostrophe, and opening and closing double quotes are the same as in Grade-2 English Braille.

Digits

Apart from 0, this is the same as the Antoine notation used in French and Luxembourgish Braille.

Upper-case letters

GS8 upper-case letters are indicated by the same cell as standard English braille (and GS8) lower-case letters, with dot #7 added. Compare Luxembourgish Braille.

Greek letters

Dot 8 is added to the letter forms of International Greek Braille to derive Greek letters:

Characters differing from English Braille

ASCII symbols and mathematical operators

Text symbols

Math and science symbols

Markup

* Encodes the fraction-slash for the single adjacent digits/letters as numerator and denominator. * Used for any > 1 digit radicand. ** Used for markup to represent inkprint text.

Typeface indicators

Shape symbols

Set theory

References

Blind physicist creates better Braille
— a CNN news item, November 9, 1995
The world of blind mathematicians
— article in ''Notices of the AMS'', November 2002 {{DEFAULTSORT:Gardner-Salinas Braille Braille symbols 8-dot braille scripts Mathematical notation