Braille pattern dots-2568

Dot 2 is on the left; 5, 6, 8 are right.

An eight-dot cell has two columns of four positions. Read from top to bottom, the left column is numbered 1, 2, 3, 7, and the right column 4, 5, 6, 8. In ⢲, the top row is empty, the second row has both dots, and the third and fourth rows each have only the right dot.

“Eight-dot” describes the available positions, not the number of dots present. Unicode records this arrangement; it does not assign it a letter or word. To decode it in a passage, you need the relevant language's Braille conventions or the notation being used.

Braille is writing read by touch

Braille lets blind readers read raised dots with their fingertips. Louis Braille developed its six-dot cell after encountering Charles Barbier's twelve-dot system, presented at a Paris school for blind students in 1821. The smaller cell fitted beneath a fingertip.

Braille has conventions for writing languages, music and mathematics. Eight-dot Braille extends the six-dot cell with two positions underneath, including dot 8 in ⢲, and is used in computing.