Braille pattern dots 1 and 3

In English Braille, ⠅ stands for the letter k. Braille is read by touch: each cell has six possible raised-dot positions, arranged in two columns of three. Position numbers run down the left column, then down the right; ⠅ marks dots 1 and 3. The English Braille code assigns that pattern to k.

The pattern belongs to Braille’s history, not to a one-off Unicode invention. Charles Barbier demonstrated an earlier raised-dot system in 1821. Louis Braille refined it into a compact six-dot cell by 1824, and the system was first published in 1829. Its purpose was tactile reading and writing for people who cannot read print by sight.

Unicode stores the dot arrangement itself rather than translating it into a letter. Braille codes vary by language and convention, so the same pattern can represent a different letter, syllable, abbreviation, or symbol elsewhere. Braille software can translate a cell to text; whether it outputs ⠅ or k depends on the chosen output.