January 4th, 2021 is the third World Braille Day. Braille is an important tool for blind people to receive education, acquire knowledge and achieve self-reliance, and its basic role is being more and more deeply understood.
Braille book publishing has also attracted more and more attention. Open a book in Braille, and the fingertips of blind readers gently touch the six changeable bumps, each of which is full and warm, just like touching the familiar faces of relatives. Words, paragraphs, and articles have strung together countless rich days, paving a bright road to the future, allowing blind readers to cross the visual barrier and become knowledgeable and educated social participants and builders.
Six-point Braille
A Special Bridge to the Knowledge World
For the blind, touch and hearing are important channels for them to obtain information, and Braille books play a key role in it.
Braille is a text perceived by touch. The smallest unit that can be used independently is "Fang", and each side has three lines, two columns and six fixed points. Braille has strict standards for dot spacing, square spacing and dot height, and is designed according to the best touch point of index finger. Blind people use the index fingers of both hands to touch and read, just as we can’t disassemble strokes when reading Chinese characters, skilled readers can also identify different points as a whole, and the speed of touching and reading can be equivalent to that of ordinary reading.
Six-point Braille was invented by Louis Blair of the French. Previously, books for the blind were printed with enlarged letterpress letters, which were not only small in number, but also large and heavy, and felt very slow, which was inconvenient for the blind to read and write. In 1821, Blair accidentally thought of using bumps instead of lines to create new Braille. After more than ten years of research and design, French Braille, including characters and mathematical symbols, was officially finalized.
In 1952, referring to Blair’s six-point Braille system and combining the old blind characters, Chinese and Huang Nai created China Braille, which is based on Beijing dialect and spelled by word segmentation and linking. It has 18 initial consonants and 34 vowels, and its sound and rhyme are spelled into one syllable, and the other blind symbol is used as key signature, but it is generally unstressed except for rare words. In December, 1953, the Braille Publishing Group of the China Welfare Association for the Blind was formally established, which initiated the publishing business for the blind in New China. This is the predecessor of China Braille Publishing House. In 1954, the first book in Braille, Who is the cutest person, was published.
Language is an important tool for human learning and communication. As a special text for the blind, Braille is convenient for the blind to read and write, and it is an important and irreplaceable way for the blind to learn scientific and cultural knowledge. This special bridge leading to the knowledge world provides convenience for the blind to fully participate in social life and share the fruits of development on an equal footing, and helps them to change from the rescued to the builders of society.
Over the past 60 years, China Braille Publishing House has accumulated experience and brought its professional advantages into full play, and gradually acquired the publishing ability of various books such as politics, culture, education, medicine and health. China Braille Publishing House strives to make important documents of the party and the country publish Braille editions in time, so that blind readers can know the latest policies. Let the Braille teaching materials be published accurately, covering compulsory education, higher education and social education and training in an all-round way, meeting the learning needs of the majority of blind students and laying a solid cultural foundation for blind generation and growth; Let outstanding publications in different categories such as literature, science and technology be published in Braille in time to meet the growing spiritual and cultural needs of blind readers.
Braille editing and correcting
Grind every character with your heart
Braille book editing and proofreading process is complex and difficult. With the love and responsibility for the cause of Braille publishing, several generations of Braille publishers have polished every Braille character attentively, providing rich and varied reading materials and valuable spiritual food for blind readers.
Braille in China is a phonetic alphabet, which is generally not marked with tones. In actual use, the tone adjustment rate is only 5%, which makes it difficult to distinguish some homophones from homophones in Braille. Braille editors must check and confirm it repeatedly to ensure correct translation and proofreading. When reading a book, we often encounter words we don’t know. Most people don’t look them up in the dictionary when they don’t affect their understanding, but braille editors can’t let go of a word, including the light tone and the vowel sound in different contexts. The rare words in modern publications are limited, but a large part of Braille books are medical books. There are a lot of uncommon words and unusual pronunciations in traditional Chinese medicine, traditional Chinese medicine and ancient Chinese medicine, and some words can’t be found in common dictionaries, so non-professionals can’t read them correctly at all. Braille editors not only rely on authoritative reference books such as Ci Hai and Ci Yuan to set the tone and tune, but also make their own "small dictionary", which is full of uncommon words and their correct pronunciation and source in different contexts.
Braille proofreading is a group of "one bright and one blind". In different proofreading times, either the discerning person reads aloud and the blind person checks Braille, or the blind person touches and checks the original book. They cooperate tacitly, record and correct mistakes, and work towards the goal of editing and proofreading with zero error rate. Braille proofreaders not only have the same high level of writing as ordinary publications proofreading, but also have the basic skill of "word segmentation", that is, to separate and connect words through grammatical rules and the particularity of Braille. Only by mastering the phonetic, tonal and blank features of Braille and mastering as much knowledge as possible about the meaning, semantics and implications of Chinese characters can we correctly divide words.
In order to improve the accuracy of Braille, facilitate the reading of the blind, and promote the integration of Braille with the digital age, China has launched the national general Braille reform, that is, on the basis of the current Braille, improving the rules of tone sandhi, standardizing the usage of tone symbols, and solving the problem of blind reading difficulties caused by too few tone sandhi and inaccurate pronunciation in the past. On July 1, 2018, China began to implement the National General Braille Program. This is a test for braille editors. In order to complete the publishing transition to general Braille faster and better, all Braille compilers have stepped up their study of the national general Braille rules. Whether they are editors and proofreaders who are used to using the current Braille or new employees, they have mastered the national general Braille through special training and applied it to Braille editing and publishing.
It can be said that in the complicated editing and proofreading process, every character of the blind document has been touched by the gentle fingertips of the editing and proofreading staff and recited by a warm voice, and every braille character is full of the efforts and expectations of the editing and proofreading staff.
Braille printing
Pave the road to light with sincerity
Braille printing process is complex, long cycle and high cost, which is more time-consuming and laborious than ordinary book printing.
Braille books are printed on the front and back of a single sheet, with bumps on one page and pits on the other page on each side, and the bumps sometimes get stuck together, which is why the page matching process of Braille books is still manual. Collating works like playing the piano, with good coordination between left and right hands, and between fingers, both fast and focused. A book of blind documents is made up of the hands of generations of page sorters.
Folding and sewing are the characteristics of braille books, that is, every three sheets of braille paper are folded and sewn at the left 1 cm. The reason for folding is: first, to avoid the braille bumps on the inner page from being squeezed and deformed, which brings difficulties to touch and read; The second is to avoid the bell mouth, and the thickness of the spine after folding is twice as much as the original, which is just the same as the height of the braille bump, so that the thickness of the spine and the mouth of the finished book is roughly the same; The third is to ensure that any page can be tiled when sewing and reading, which is convenient for the blind to touch and read.
After more than 60 years’ efforts, China Braille Publishing House accurately published nearly 10,000 kinds of Braille books, which initially met the spiritual, cultural and vocational training needs of the blind. The increasing richness of Braille books is full of the concern of the party and the government, and embodies the painstaking efforts of Braille publishers.
Today, Braille books are helping blind people to eliminate reading difficulties caused by visual loss to the greatest extent. Blind people learn systematically through Braille books, earn their own living with their own knowledge and skills, and help others and contribute to society. Many industries, such as psychological consultation, massage and piano tuning, shine with the hard work and wisdom of the blind, and there are many blind people among teachers, lawyers and engineers.
Perhaps the appearance of Braille books is not as beautiful as ordinary books, but the raised Braille dots all have clear outlines and tall and straight postures, which are not unassuming or humble. The six points are subtly transformed, and different themes are interpreted. The still water is deep, and the light shines in the warmth and tranquility.
(Author: China Braille Publishing House)
Liu aishu
