Roundabout Topics: Eight Fundamentals of Braille Reading

Eight Fundamentals of Braille Reading:Image of three areas moving in a circle around the word "topics".

  • Use 6 fingers (3 on each hand)
  • Use the pads of your fingers NOT the very tips
  • Keep your fingers lined up and firmly together
  • NEVER stop to scrub; always be moving across the braille and not up and down
  • If you need to go back over a word slide your hands back then go back across
  • Keep your palms from dragging on the page or table
  • Use a light touch; lighter the touch the more prevalent the spaces between braille dots become
  • Track back on the same line then drop down to the next line

With daily reading and maintaining the above techniques, building strong braille reading skills is possible. Braille doesn’t have to be difficult as long as you believe your able to improve.

There are different ways to practice braille and they work whether you are reading on a braille display or physical book. Reading silently, following along, and reading aloud are three ways you can practice your braille and all develop additional skills beyond braille. 

Staff member, Leland Smith, will be providing us with a few topics a month stemming from questions he has received from patrons mainly around tech and apps.  His goal is to take the topic and bounce down different avenues of information about it.

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