Braille Adventures has over 400+ YouTube videos!

Elizabeth Symington, founder

Elizabeth is 100% obsessed with braille. She is a Certified Braille Transcriber and Teacher of the Visually Impaired. She also founded a braille production department for a nonprofit. She earned a BFA in tactile, interactive art and a MA in Special Education with an emphasis in visual impairment.

She created Braille Adventures, a YouTube channel with over 400 videos!

She is passionate about debunking misconceptions about the invention of braille, by collaborating with researcher, Philippa Campsie. Elizabeth has visited Louis Braille's home in France and she looks forward to visiting in the future.

The texture legend on Elizabeth's sculpture. The texture is rope and braille says turquoise.

Tactile Artist

Elizabeth fell in love with braille after seeing a picture book that was adapted for the blind. The picture book had raised pictures that rose off the page like a wall fresco. This logical braille code, paired with interactive art was a perfect blend of Elizabeth's passions.

BFA Sculpture

Specialized in Interactive Art

Academy of Art University, CA

Graduated Cum Laude
Awarded Best Installation Artist for her braille themed art

Three 3D printed objects: bust of Charles Barbier, the Pantheon in Paris and an 8 dot braille slate.

Transcriber & YouTuber

Aced the final braille a projectd the national transcriber certification (NLS) in two years, while also collaborating with Dan Gergen, proofreading a 400+ page study guide that accompanies the NLS course.

During that time, she founded the UEB Study Group on Facebook, an online support group for student transcribers. And she started creating videos for her YouTube channel, Braille Adventures, which now has 400+ videos.

Literary Braille Transcription certification

National Library Service

Aced the final braille transcription project

Handmade Perkins Brailler dust cover by Elizabeth using a red fox cartoon fabric with blue trim.

Teacher of the Visually Impaired

Elizabeth wanted to learn HOW to teach braille, so she became a Teacher of the Visually Impaired.

While in graduate school, she founded a braille production department for a nonprofit and she was invited to present at several national braille conferences.

Teacher of the Visually Impaired (TVI) and Master of Arts in Special Education with an emphasis in visual impairment

San Francisco State University, CA

Graduated Summa Cum Laude

What is Braille?

The alphabet in print and in braille, divided into three rows, a-j, k-t and u-z with w by itself.

What is Braille?

Braille is a reading and writing system made up of six dots. Typically, the dots are read by touch, but some parents and teachers can sight-read braille. Braille is more than 200 years old, but braille technology keeps advancing and now includes: braille transcription software, embossers (printers), braille keyboards (refreshable braille displays) and braille laptops (braille note takers). Here at Braille Adventures we cover it all, from low to high tech.

Why learn Braille?

Braille literacy is linked to self-esteem and to improved quality of life. Braille provides a solid foundation for literacy, plus it’s super fun to learn!

Braille is so important that in the USA, it is a legal requirement under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, to teach braille to students who are blind or low vision, unless its use is deemed inappropriate by the IEP team. The IEP team comprises the parents and school personnel working together to develop an Individual Educational Program for a child who qualifies for special education services.

If your vision is at risk, plan ahead and learn the skills before you need them. By 2050, the number of blind and visually impaired Americans is expected to double, as Boomers get older and as a result of the diabetes epidemic. By 2050, it is estimated that there will be 2 million legally blind and 8.2 million visually impaired Americans (National Eye Institute, 2016).

Braille is Literacy

It's a more efficient way to master grammar, punctuation, and spelling versus auditory-only instruction.
It's an option for people with low vision who cannot read print comfortably or quickly for a sustained period of time.
Math and science are more effectively taught through touch versus auditory-only instruction.

Braille Provides Opportunties

Proficient braille readers have higher employment rates and earnings than those who do not use braille (Bell & Mino, 2013).
With braille, you can accurately proofread your own emails and reports.
Braille allows for note taking in class or at work.
Brailled cue cards are useful when you are giving presentations.

Braille Offers Independence

You can add braille labels to medications, canned food, spices, appliances, keys…
Braille allows for easier navigation with tactile maps, restroom signs, or hotel room numbers.
Braille lets you pursue hobbies, such as journaling, reading books or music (braille is also used for musical scores).
You can read bank statements and summaries of doctor’s visits in braille.

Braille Creates Community

Parents can leave braille notes in their child’s lunch bag and read books together with their children.
You can send and receive cards.
Learning braille together allows for connection with other users.
You can play games with others, such as, cards, Monopoly, Boggle, Scrabble, or, Lego.

Breaking News about Louis Braille and Charles Barbier

Of all the individuals involved in the history of braille, Charles Barbier is probably the most mysterious and the most misunderstood.

We may never know what inspired this former teacher, surveyor, and artillery officer to develop a writing method for the blind, a type of sign language for the deaf, a simplified alphabet for young children, and complicated cryptography for diplomats.

What we do know, however, is that his invention of coded raised-point writing for the blind, along with the necessary tools for creating it and his donation of hundreds of sets of those tools to the school for the blind in Paris, made it possible for Louis Braille to do what he did. Without Barbier, there would be no braille.

Braille built on an invention by Charles Barbier (1767-1841). Image of a white man with a coat.

Myths about Barbier’s achievements and motivations abound.

He is said to have created raised-point writing to allow for night-time communications in the military. No, he didn’t. Barbier’s publications show that he created it specifically for blind people.
Biographies of Braille usually feature a hostile encounter between a uniformed Barbier and a schoolboy Braille. Never happened…and Barbier had left the army long before Braille was born. The two met when Braille was an adult, Barbier was a civilian, and their relationship was friendly.

This is NOT Charles Barbier. This is Pierre-François-Hercule, count de Serre. Man with white tie.

Barbier’s method is described as purely phonetic; the term “sonography” is often used. In fact, Barbier’s method allowed for conventional spelling and the term “sonography” was invented much later. It is not a word Barbier himself ever used.
Even a widely circulated image said to be of Charles Barbier actually portrays Pierre-François-Hercule, count de Serre. Charles Barbier’s full name was Nicolas-Marie-Charles Barbier de la Serre, but he was not a count; the engraving shows a French lawyer and politician who happened to have a similar last name.

These and other myth-busting facts have recently come to light for a couple of reasons. First, descendants of the Barbier family donated his papers to the museum at the Valentin Haüy Association in Paris in 2001, where they are available to researchers. Second, several of Barbier’s publications, once very hard to find in libraries, are now on Google Books for all to see.

Using these and other sources of information, Philippa Campsie, a researcher based in Toronto, wrote an article titled “Charles Barbier: A hidden story,” published by the Disability Studies Quarterly in 2021. Since then, she has continued her research, learning more about the Paris school for the blind in the early 19thcentury, and more about Barbier’s life and work before and after his invention was adopted by the school in 1821. A book is in the works.

Gradually, those interested in the history of braille are acknowledging Barbier’s contribution. The Barbier family has placed a plaque on his grave that recognizes his work. Changes have been made to Wikipedia, the Encyclopedia Britannica, and the websites of some of the major institutions for the blind.

Barbier also created simple tools for writing with raised dots. Image of Barbier slate and stylus.

How can you help?

If you are associated with a non-profit or other group that includes the history of braille on its website or in published material, make sure the facts are correct and if not, ask for changes.
If you teach and use one of the many (now outdated) children’s books about Louis Braille, let your students know that the story in them is not wholly accurate. Maybe create a book of your own about the true story.

In 1815, Barbier published a dozen different types of simplified writing. Image from his book.

Why does it matter?

Responsible historians stick to the evidence and give credit where credit is due. The facts show that Charles Barbier invented the idea of and tools for raised-point writing that Louis Braille used to create his own system.
If we distort the facts about Barbier, we are also distorting the facts about Louis Braille. He did not take a military invention and adapt it; he did not have a hostile attitude towards the inventor of raised-point writing; and he never took full credit for his invention – he always acknowledged Barbier’s pioneering accomplishments.