Reflecting on Braille Literacy Month: The War of the Dots

by Aaron Preece
Today the Unified English Braille system offers people who are blind (or whose sight exists within the spectrum of blindness) an effective reading and writing system. But the history of braille — which is more than 200 years old — is complex, including a "War of the Dots," international collaboration, and several alterations.

Here are links to our lists for the book: Introduction, The War of the Dots, Toward a Unified System, The Legacy of Braille
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. discern
    recognize or perceive a difference or distinction
    These letters were difficult to discern, hard to produce, and couldn’t be written by blind individuals themselves due to the complexity of their production.
  2. complexity
    the quality of being intricate and compounded
    These letters were difficult to discern, hard to produce, and couldn’t be written by blind individuals themselves due to the complexity of their production.
  3. revolutionize
    change radically
    Braille revolutionized literacy by not only being easier to read but also allowing blind individuals to write independently.
  4. hindsight
    understanding the nature of an event after it has happened
    However, with hindsight, New York Point was less efficient than braille.
  5. capitalization
    the use of uppercase letters
    Its complexity, particularly in handling capitalization and punctuation, often led to their omission in printed materials.
  6. punctuation
    the use of marks to clarify meaning of written material
    Its complexity, particularly in handling capitalization and punctuation, often led to their omission in printed materials.
  7. omission
    leaving out or passing over something
    Its complexity, particularly in handling capitalization and punctuation, often led to their omission in printed materials.
  8. retain
    allow to remain in a place or maintain a property or feature
    This system retained Louis Braille’s two-column, three-cell structure but reassigned letters to prioritize the most frequently used ones, reducing the number of dots per letter.
  9. reassign
    move somebody to a different position or location of work
    This system retained Louis Braille’s two-column, three-cell structure but reassigned letters to prioritize the most frequently used ones, reducing the number of dots per letter.
  10. prioritize
    assign a status in order of importance or urgency
    This system retained Louis Braille’s two-column, three-cell structure but reassigned letters to prioritize the most frequently used ones, reducing the number of dots per letter.
  11. contraction
    a word made by leaving out letters of a word or words
    Smith also introduced contractions to save space.
  12. consistently
    in a systematic or steady manner
    Interestingly, whenever New York Point and braille-based systems were evaluated side by side, braille was consistently deemed superior by those without prior biases.
  13. deem
    judge or regard in a particular way
    Interestingly, whenever New York Point and braille-based systems were evaluated side by side, braille was consistently deemed superior by those without prior biases.
  14. bias
    a partiality preventing objective consideration of an issue
    Interestingly, whenever New York Point and braille-based systems were evaluated side by side, braille was consistently deemed superior by those without prior biases.
  15. monopolize
    have and control fully and exclusively
    Despite this, New York Point gained widespread adoption, monopolizing book production and dominating schools for the blind during the late 19th century.
Created on Thu Apr 09 17:33:28 EDT 2026 (updated Tue Apr 14 17:06:51 EDT 2026)

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