Braille as writing: Evidence and lessons for grapholinguistic theory

The inventory of embossed symbols known as Braille is widely used by Blind and Visually Impaired (BVI) users for touch-reading and information exchange. In permitting communication through the tactile-graphical mode, Braille acts as an alternative to the visual-graphical mode employed by sighted persons for the same purpose. Since its creation two centuries ago, this tactile symbol inventory has enabled BVI users around the world to access information that might otherwise have been inaccessible or unavailable to them. Braille has been widely admired for its simplicity and emancipatory potential. Yet, most sighted users know little about the symbol inventory or its underlying workings as a graphical form of spoken language. The lack of awareness extends to scholarly circles, with Braille remaining an outlier in grapholinguistic and related research endeavors. Consequently, the insights that Braille potentially offers for refining our understanding of writing remain largely unknown. Of late, Blind and sighted advocates have been calling for greater attention to be given to Braille in grapholinguistic contexts, and for it to be considered a valid form of writing. This article addresses the fundamental question of whether Braille text can be considered ‘writing’ that is analogous and equivalent to print text. To this end, the article investigates whether linguistic content in Braille meets the definitions of key grapholinguistic concepts, and identifies outliers and edge cases. The article concludes that Braille text not only fulfils the definition of ‘writing’ under contemporary grapholinguistic theory, it also helps clarify hitherto ambiguous or debated concepts.