Gardner–Salinas braille codes explained

The Gardner–Salinas braille codes are a method of encoding mathematical and scientific notation linearly using braille cells for tactile reading by the visually impaired. The most common form of Gardner–Salinas braille is the 8-cell variety, commonly called GS8. There is also a corresponding 6-cell form called GS6.[1]

The codes were developed as a replacement for Nemeth Braille by John A. Gardner, a physicist at Oregon State University, and Norberto Salinas, an Argentinian mathematician.

The Gardner–Salinas braille codes are an example of a compact human-readable markup language. The syntax is based on the LaTeX system for scientific typesetting.

See also: Braille and Braille music.

Table of Gardner–Salinas 8-dot (GS8) braille

The set of lower-case letters, the period, comma, semicolon, colon, exclamation mark, apostrophe, and opening and closing double quotes are the same as in Grade-2 English Braille.[1]

Digits

Apart from 0, this is the same as the Antoine notation used in French and Luxembourgish Braille.

Upper-case letters

GS8 upper-case letters are indicated by the same cell as standard English braille (and GS8) lower-case letters, with dot #7 added.

Compare Luxembourgish Braille.

Greek letters

Dot 8 is added to the letter forms of International Greek Braille to derive Greek letters:

Markup

* Encodes the fraction-slash for the single adjacent digits/letters as numerator and denominator.

* Used for any > 1 digit radicand.

** Used for markup to represent inkprint text.

Set theory

References

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Index of Topics in Braille Section . Oregon State University Science Access Project Braille topics. . 2012-04-29 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120420124208/http://dots.physics.orst.edu/gs_index.html . 2012-04-20 .