Play listing

App name

BrailleStep: Learn Braille

Short description

Study Unified English Braille by eye: cells, letters, numbers and contractions.

Full description

BrailleStep is a visual study tool for sighted people learning to read Braille, such as teachers, parents and volunteers who work with blind readers. It teaches Unified English Braille (UEB) on screen, one step at a time. It does not teach reading by touch.

What is in the app:

- Chart: the 64 six-dot cells in braille order. Tap a cell to zoom in and see what it means.
- Learn: a path of 18 steps, from a to j through the alphabet, numbers, punctuation and contractions. Each step opens after you answer every sign in the step before.
- Practice: see a cell and choose the text, or see the text and choose the cell. A wrong answer comes back at the end of the round.
- Translate: type English and see uncontracted braille. It runs on your device. Characters the app has no verified sign for are marked, not guessed.

Signs included: 26 letters, 10 digits, 6 indicators, 22 punctuation marks, 10 symbols and 107 contractions, 181 signs in total. Shortforms, accented letters and technical notation are not included.

Where the data comes from: cells and signs were generated by a script from machine-readable sources, not written by AI. The 64 cells come from the Unicode Braille Patterns block. Signs come from the liblouis braille tables, and each was included only when it agreed with The Rules of Unified English Braille, Third Edition 2024, published by the International Council on English Braille (ICEB). Sources and licences are listed in the app.

Which braille this is: Unified English Braille only. The older English Braille American Edition differs in contractions and punctuation, so charts from it will not always match.

BrailleStep is not a certified course. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by ICEB, BANA, liblouis, Unicode or any braille authority. Please check anything important with a qualified braille reader.

Privacy: no account, ads, analytics, tracking or in-app purchases. Progress stays on your device. The app asks for no Android permissions and works offline. Links on the Data sources screen open in your browser.