Braille literacy is very low, as another commenter said it's around 10% in the US. I'm partially sighted and don't read braille myself, although I've been self-teaching recently. From what I've seen and heard (from others and myself), there seems to be two common threads: Unwillingness to teach braille because,

1) Low braille literacy does not lend itself to a high supply of people able/willing to teach braille. A lot of educators to the BVI are sighted and don't know braille, and although it'd be helpful to teach these students braille in many cases, it's much easier to teach them using methods more accessible to the instructors, e.g., large print, text-to-speech, etc. This one strikes me as odd, because it has a ting of "even if braille is convenient for you as a BVI person, it's inconvenient for me (to teach) as a sighted person".

2) Reluctance to teach braille when it's not deemed "necessary" and/or because braille is deemed too "alienating", e.g., sighted children read using the normal alphabet and you have some remaining vision so you should too (even if that requires extra large print + magnification resulting in 32 point font or grinding your nose straight up against the books). As someone whose experienced this, the irony is not lost on me.

I will say, although not applicable to me, for those completely blind braille is the only means by which one can read by one's self, for one's self, at one's own pace, fully and completely independently without the need for help from anyone or anything (screen readers included). There's something beautiful in that. Braille is as much a symbol of blind independence as the white cane and is important to blind culture. I only hope that braille literacy rates increase in the future.

I have only light perception, and started learning braille when I was about two.
Contextually, I feel like the English language would be a lot harder to grasp without a physical way to read it. Spelling would be a lot more difficult, I would have had to make a lot more effort to discern different words, especially the ones that are pronounced the same but spelled differently,.Being able to read braille also helped immensely with my understanding of punctuation and grammar. When you are listening to an audio source read something, you may hear a pause, and just think it is a pause, unless you are going letter by letter. Braille, like print, spells out where commas, dashes, colons, and other punctuation are present, so that you can really understand the structure of language. I will admit that I mostly use my phone to communicate now, since technology has evolved so quickly, and Braille displays can be expensive and cumbersome, even the little ones, which are an extra thing to carry around, but I read braille every day at work. I work with long strings of numbers, and there’s no way I want to let a screen reader read them all off. I am glad I am able to read them in braille, and drill down to exactly what I need, when I need it. Statistically, if you are blind to the point where you can’t read any print, you are much more likely to be employed if you are a braille user. Of course this is much different for people who lose their site later in life, as it’s much harder to become fluent in any language the older we get. I know, this from personal experience, as I’m currently on the struggle bus with Duolingo.

I’m a bit of a Braille nerd and currently learning Grade 2. I don’t read as much as I should (my Focus 14 is small so it makes it difficult, though I like reading using Kindle). I have a Braille labeller which is fun and should make life easier, especially when I move out. So far, I’ve loved learning Braille.

I’m learning it now as an adult. I only know the alphabet and some basic punctuation so far. I have quite a hard time reading words but I also don’t practice as much as I should. I started because I thought it might help me with computer programming, or might be cool to read books without relying on audio, but I’m questioning whether I will ever be that fluent. Only one way to find out I guess. I just read my first Braille book (‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ 😂). It was in contracted Braille but I’ve read it enough times I was able to figure it out. Haha, hopefully I’ll progress beyond that…someday!

/u/25reborn feel free to message me more about this topic.

I was born blind, and so from the very beginning of my schooling I learned Braille. Because I was in a "normal" integrated school rather than a school for the blind I took lessons off to learn Braille (while students learned cursive writing, but also later art lessons) So it probably took me like six months on and off to learn the alphabet (because I was like 6 at the time) Then learning contractions took like 3 years of school. There are around 150 contractions (I learned contracted Braille, or Grade 2 Braille before there was such a concept as the Unified English Braille code).

Next my Educational Assistant was able to get a Braille embosser to connect to the computer, and I got one for my home eventually. I learned typing very quickly, but still used Braille for all my reading.

Now I use a Refreshable Braille Display screen, I make notes on my old Braille typewriter, and I have many hard copy Braille books. I am 30, and have a degree in English literature and I could not have done that without my enthusiasm for Braille.

As I said feel free to ask me any questions and I will do research and give my personal opinions.

I know the Braille alphabet and some basic punctuation. I learned it as a kid, mostly because I thought it was cool. I have enough sight to read large print, and even regular print, depending on the circumstances. So I really don’t have any reason to learn more than the little Braille I know. I use it for things like elevator buttons where it comes in handy, but otherwise, nothing else.

There’s a Braille literacy statistic I’ve seen thrown about that I wonder about. Something like, 10% of blind people know Braille but 90% of Braille users have jobs (so you should learn Braille), though I might be misquoting that. I wonder if it takes into account the people like myself who are blind, but not in a way where Braille would be useful. I also suspect a lot of the people who don’t use Braille are those who lost their vision later in life, and are retired/not looking for work. Which would also skew the statistics.

Learned it when I was 7. Don’t use it much anymore because of technology but especially for correcting large documents it’s a game changer

I would love to learn it but I have difficulty due to sensory issues in my hands (had them badly burned as a child in an accident + current job uses a lot of strong chemicals). I’m looking into it but rn all I know is “Woman” “Man” and numbers 1-10.

When you study stem it is inescapable. Not that I want to. Going through a ton of mathematics right now and braille is very useful.

I have a perkins brailler sitting right here in front of me staring me in the face a stack of a lot of papers in front of me and to my left on a shelf, standing vertically. I have a ton of braille math books. I own three displays right now one braille display works. It’s also the cheapest.


I learnt braille at 6 along with english and I learnt it when everyone was learning to read and write in kindergarten and first grade. I spent a lot of time in the vision room so the teachers would be teaching me the contractions. I used braille textbooks even english and social studies ones all in braille and had copies at home and at school. I had two sets. I read the high school law textbook all in braille.

In 4th grade I was introduced to the braille note, at the time a braillenote classic. A braille note taker, and computer. I used it for many years, started using the regular computer at 14. I would read braille on the notetaker and read a lot of books on it did my assignmetns on it. I worked with a braille embosser at school in high school, I didn’t own a personal unit.

I learnt braille at a young age but prefer my screen reader.

Being able to read it is great for tablets boxes and things like that but I don't use it in my day to day life.

I have no desire to learn Braille. It's a cool skill to have but modern technology has made Braille less important than it once was.

My phone can read text messages, books, web pages, and newspapers aloud. I can even point the camera at a sign in Braille and the phone will read the translation to me, and I'm not even that tech savvy or computer literate. The effort to learn Braille seems like reinventing the wheel. In another post I compared learning Braille to learning to spin your own thread, weave your own cloth, and sew your own clothes - you should definitely feel proud about mastering it, but easier and cheaper options are certainly available.