Braille
Tactile reading code, based on six dots (like the 6 on a domino)
invented in the early 1805 by a blind French boy, Louis Braille. Used
throughout the world, and includes codes for music, mathematics,
science, chess and foreign languages.
Dotty (or Dotted) Moon
Moon-like characters made up from a grid of dots (often a 5 by 5
square), which can be produced on a Moon-enabled braille embosser.
Embosser
Special printer attached to a computer which produces braille or
dotty Moon documents.
Grade 1
The simplest form of Moon or braille, which is generally a letter for
letter translation from print. The Grade 1 code includes the alphabet
and punctuation marks, with special symbols to denote capital letters,
numbers, italicised print and so on. Grade 1 Moon also includes single
signs for "and", "the" and "th", as well as 2-characters signs for
"ing", "ment", "ness" and "tion".
Some books produced for children use letter for letter translation plus
the symbols for the words "and" and "the".
Grade 2
A more complex braille or Moon code, building on Grade 1, and
including additional signs to represent groups of commonly-occurring
letters, plus a simple shorthand. Grade 2 Moon includes single signs for
"ch" and "wh", and represents complete words by a single letter or group
of letters (e.g. "I" for "like", and "yd" for
"yesterday").
Heat Fuser
Machine used to apply heat to swell (micro-capsule) paper and raise
the black images on the paper so that they can be felt with the fingers.
Moon
A set of raised characters based on the print Roman alphabet devised
by William Moon in the first half of the nineteenth century. The
alphabet, punctuation marks and a numeral sign are included. The same
Moon character represents the capital and lower case version of each
letter, and numbers are represented by letters preceded by the numeral
sign, where "a" represents 1 , "b" 2, "c" 3, ..."i" 9 and "j" 0.
For
example, 23 is represented by numeral sign "bc" and 207 by numeral sign
"bjg".
"New" Moon
lntroduced in the early 1990s, this version of Moon has all lines
running from left to right as in English print. Hyphens are used when a
word cannot be completed on a line. A few of William Moon's original
characters have been slightly modified in this version of Moon.
"Old" Moon
Originally developed by William Moon, the lines are read alternately
from left to right, then back from right to left, and so on. Print-like
brackets are used to guide the fingers round from the end of one line to
the start of the next. No hyphens are used, but unfinished words simply
continue on the next line - thus saving space.
Swell Paper
Micro-capsule heat-sensitive paper which, when passed under a heat
source, raises black areas of the printing on the paper so that it can
easily be felt with the fingers. Frequently used for Moon documents or
tactile diagrams.
StaffsMaths Numbers
An alternative Moon number system devised in Staffordshire for
children, which includes unique Moon characters to represent digits as
well as basic arithmetic operators such as representations of the
addition, subtraction, multiplication and division signs, equals and
inequality signs, the per cent sign, etc.
Touch Reading
The method used by blind people to read with the finger pads, using
Moon, braille or other raised characters. Both hands are used by the
most efficient touch readers, and fluent reading speeds can be achieved
with years of practice.
Tracking
Following along lines of Moon or braille with the finger pads when
reading by touch. Back-tracking is used to locate the next line to be
read.
Translation Software
Computer software which takes an electronic file as input and applies
Moon or braille rules to create an output file of correctly formatted
Moon or braille to be printed as a hard copy on an embosser.
Wibble Font
Moon font on a computer which includes the StaffsMaths Moon numbers
and arithmetic signs.
