Previous research has found that people who have just started reading braille by haptic touch try to imagine the characters visually. For example, seeing black spots on a white background and associating the formation of these with regular print characters, objects they have seen, or both. When they become tactually more experienced, this stops. In contrast, people who are born blind recognise the braille characters through either their quantity and location of dots or their tactile global shape1. (See our blog for the scientific approach, Vision, haptic touch, and hearing, and Decay and maintenance of sensory memories.)
This time, I wanted to explore what happens when people stop trying to imagine the braille characters visually. To shed some light on this, I have invited I.A. to share her experiences. Born partially sighted, with about 5% vision in one eye, I.A. started reading and writing regular print. I.A. learned braille on her own at around 13 years old: first memorising the braille alphabet, using a combination of vision and haptic touch. Then reading materials published in both regular print and braille. About three years later, I.A. was no longer able to read regular print. She now knew all the braille characters by haptic touch, but needed help to perfect her reading technique. Today, I.A. has been reading and writing braille by haptic touch alone for more than 25 years. She has been teaching braille to people who have become blind for more than 10 years. And she is an appointed Board Member of the braille authority in her country. I.A. approved this text before we posted it on our blog. The journey she is taking us on is rather unexpected.
For the first two or three years of reading braille by haptic touch alone, I.A. saw the dots in each character as mini light bulbs in her mind’s eye. She concentrated on how many they were and where they were located.
Gradually, I.A. started perceiving the tactile global shape of short two and three letter words. For example, of ⠉⠁⠞ (cat) and ⠙⠕⠛ (dog). She still reads longer words letter by letter, but she has stopped seeing their dots as mini light bulbs in her mind’s eye.
Reading by haptic touch alone, I.A. recognises the braille characters through their quantity and location of dots. She recognises short two and three letter words by their tactile global shape.
As I.A. became more experienced in reading braille by haptic touch alone, the letters started appearing in colour – just as they had done in regular print. For example, a in red; b in dark blue, c in light yellow, d in dark yellow, e in pale blue; f in blue-grey; g in green; h in beige; i in translucent white, j in white, and so on.
And the numbers too: 1 in white; 2 in yellow; 3 in blue, 4 in light yellow; 5 in green; 6 in blue, 7 in white, 8 in red, 9 in brown, and 0 in silver grey. Some punctuations and signs also have the same colour as in regular print; like “division” (÷) which is yellow, while others gained a colour in braille, like “equals” (=) which is now mossy green.
I.A. experiences synaesthesia. She associates certain letters, numbers, punctuations, and signs with certain colours (see our blog for the crossmodal correspondences between the senses and the intriguing association between sounds and colours).
I.A.’s synaesthesia appears only when reading. She does not associate letters, numbers, punctuations, and signs with colour when writing. But, as soon as she checks her spelling, they appear in colour again.
When reading shorter words, like “cat” and “dog”, I.A. first detects the tactile global shape of the word and then associates it with colour. That is, the colour when combining all the letters. The word “dog” for example is a combination of (d) dark yellow, (o) silver grey, and (g) green. I.A. sees “dog” as a mossy green word.
According to I.A. the colour helps her distinguish between words with a similar tactile global shape. For example, ⠙⠕⠛ (dog) and ⠋⠕⠛ (fog). While “dog” has a mossy green colour, “fog” is light green; that is, a combination of (f) blue-grey, (o) silver grey, and (g) green.
Longer words, that I.A. reads letter by letter, are coloured by their first letter. For example, the word “braille” is dark blue and “crossmodal” is light yellow.
It seems I.A.’s subjective crossmodal correspondences are not sensory specific: they exist regardless of whether she is reading regular print or braille. Could they be linked to information that transfers between vision and touch? For example, shape. Or, are they rather linked to the sound of the letters, numbers, punctuations, and signs (see our blog for the scientific approach, the crossmodal correspondences between the senses and the intriguing association between sounds and colours)?
See our blog for Activities; especially 58-61.
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1Graven, T. (2015). How blind individuals discriminate braille characters: An identification and comparison of three discrimination strategies. British Journal of Visual Impairment, 33(2), 80-95.
