Braille dots 1-3-5-6

⠵ has dots at top left, bottom left, and lower right.

A six-dot Braille cell has two columns of three positions. Viewed from the reading side, the left column is numbered 1, 2, 3 from top to bottom; the right is 4, 5, 6. In ⠵, positions 1, 3, 5 and 6 are raised: top left, bottom left, middle right and bottom right.

In English Braille, this is the letter z. Braille systems serve different languages and also notation such as mathematics and music. Unicode stores the dot pattern itself; the system used in the surrounding text supplies its reading.

A writing system made for fingertips

Louis Braille developed his system from Charles Barbier’s larger raised-dot code, designed for silent communication in darkness. Barbier introduced that code at a Paris school for blind students in 1821.

By 1824, Braille had developed a compact six-dot cell that could fit under a fingertip. He published his system in 1829. Letters such as ⠵ belong to that tradition of reading and writing by touch.