Braille Pattern, Dots 1-3-5-6-8

It marks dot positions, not a universal word or letter. Unicode identifies which dots are present; a Braille code assigns the reading. The language or computer code, together with the surrounding Braille symbols, determines what the pattern represents.

Braille grew from Charles Barbier’s raised-dot night writing, a method intended for military messages that could be read without light. Barbier demonstrated it at the school for blind students in Paris in 1821. Louis Braille adapted Barbier’s approach into a smaller system with six dot positions and published his method in 1829.

Eight-dot Braille added two positions to the six-dot cell, allowing more one-cell distinctions for computer use. It was widespread on computer-related displays by the late 1980s. On an ordinary screen, ⢵ is drawn as a glyph; a tactile Braille display raises dots that can be read by touch.