Braille t (dots 2-3-4-5)

It is t: dots 2, 3, 4 and 5 raised. A braille cell has six dot positions in two columns of three. The left column is numbered 1–2–3 from top to bottom, the right 4–5–6. In ⠞ the middle and bottom dots on the left and the top and middle dots on the right are raised, which gives a slanting step shape.

The pattern is not random. Louis Braille built his alphabet in rows of ten: a–j use only the top four positions, and k–t repeat them with dot 3 added. So t is j (⠚, dots 2-4-5) plus dot 3. Because many other braille alphabets follow the same order, dots 2345 also stands for Cyrillic т, Greek τ and Arabic ت.

Will everyone read ⠞ as t?

Usually, but braille codes differ by language and context. Unicode encodes the dot pattern, not a letter; the braille code in use decides what it means. In English contracted braille, ⠞ standing alone means the word "that", and codes for scripts such as Chinese or Japanese assign patterns their own way. To be read by touch, the character must be embossed on paper or shown on a refreshable braille display, a device with pins that rise under the fingers.

Online, sighted people mostly meet braille characters as tiny dots in text art: because the block holds every possible pattern, they work like pixels for drawing pictures in posts and usernames. There ⠞ carries no letter at all, and screen readers may read the whole picture aloud as a jumble of braille cells.