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Finding Braille Editions of ERC Books

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Getting Started

About Our Braille Books

The ERC has books in a number of different languages, including American Sign Language, as well as books in a different alphabet -- Braille, for the visually impaired and blind. The ERC is committed to accessibility, and Braille editions are one way that we are able to make our collection accessible to all.

Our Braille and ASL books dovetail with the mission of the Brisk Multilingual Learning Collection within our library: to expand acquiring world language and bilingual instruction, literature, and curricular materials in honor of Professor Emeritus Maria Brisk. While Braille books--unlike ASL books--are not bilingual, they do provide access to students who experience limitations when it comes to reading traditional written English.

Every student deserves to experience the vivid imagery of great children's authors -- promote Braille literacy!

Books About Braille at the ERC

Teaching Children Braille Letters and Numbers

In addition to our book of Braille numbers, Counting, we can also loan our "Braille Alphabet A-Z" manipulative that includes 26 tactile pieces, one for each letter of the alphabet. The Braille letters are given in their raised dots, while the shape of the lowercase letter is indented into the wooden piece for a child to feel. Find it at call number HV1669 .B62 2014 in our stacks!

Similarly, Counting utilizes felt so that young readers with sight loss can touch and count textured animals on each page.

History of Braille

Louis Braille was a gifted child born in Napoleonic France who attended the world 's first school for the blind, the National Institute of Blind Children, in Paris. At the time, students at the school read raised letter books, and sonography, a phonetic code of raised dots and dashes that represented sounds -- not the letters of the alphabet, numbers, or punctuation. Frustrated by the raised letter books, Louis developed his own code of raised dots that solved the problems presented by the existing system of sonography. The other students preferred Louis' code, and when Louis grew older he himself became a teacher for blind children. After his passing, his system became adopted around the world as the preferred writing code for the blind in a multitude of languages.

Your student can even read this history of Braille in Braille, in this edition, available at the ERC:

Brisk Multilingual Learning Collection

Please see our guide to learn more about bilingual and multilingual books in our collection, books in world languages, and professional development materials for dual language learners. While Braille is not a language, our Braille books serve a similar purpose as the Brisk Collection, which includes, among other materials, books to help students learn other different alphabets, such as Arabic or Japanese.

Please find out more about our collection strengths, and the materials we offer to promote literacy for diverse learners!

Selected Braille Editions of Picture Books

All of these titles and more are available in Braille editions! Note that we have titles in Braille and English, as well as Braille and Spanish.

Don't see the Braille edition you are looking for? Please offer it as a suggestion here and we will try to acquire it.
Don't know what's available? Consider titles available through the National Braille Press,  here in Boston.