How Blind People Write Braille

See? Here's something I thought might be goof for you to see.
This is how I used to write things down.
The old Perkins Brailler.
♪
So look at this thing. Big ol' clunky thing. Look at this. Look how heavy it is.
Ready? Listen.
[clunk]
I used to have to walk around the halls at school carrying this thing.
[laughing] And yes, I was a bit of a creep.
I would swing it around a little bit.
So, I'm sorry if I ever hit you with it, I'm awfully sorry.
I was just a creepy, awful kid.
I probably got this in the 6th or 7th grade.
I've had this for a long, long time.
And it's real beat up and stuff. It gets all scratched and dinged and everything.
But it still works a bit.
And I can still, if I need to read something, I can write it down on this.
So, would you like a little tour of it?
Okay, this is how it works.
The two giant buttons on the left and right hand side of it,
this one advances the paper
[clicking]
and this one is the backspace key, which is broken.
[clicking]
Well, it sort of works.
Then there are 6 keys, 1-2-3-4-5-6, spacebar in the middle.
This is the carriage, that's sorta busted.
But I can, you know, push it back that way.
And there's a bell ....
That'll let you know that you've uh, gotten to the end of the line.
[ding]
This paper is what they call 67 pound paper. It's 8½x11.
You can get this pretty much at any good store, you know?
Any good office warehouse store.
So let's feed in some paper.
Let's see how straight it is. Hey, not bad!
♪ [piano keys dubbed in]
The way Braille works, is there's a Braille cell, okay?
So, like it's a rectangle. It's a six dotted rectangle,
two rows of three right next to each other,
or three rows of two, right?
And that represents the six keys on the Braille machine, right?
That's how you can make the cell.
So, for example, if I just push this key right here, on it's own,
that would be the top, left hand corner of the cell of the six, right?
These two together are the top two on the left side of the cell.
These three, form the entire left side.
For example, if I do just one,
that's "a", up in the top left corner, that means "a".
[click]
Keys one and two will make a "b",
[click]
one and four will make a "c",
[click]
and so on and so forth, and it's just on and on it goes.
♪
Because there's only so much you can do with it, letters and numbers are the same,
So, for example, on it's own, just the one would make an "a".
If there was a sign next to it, to indicate that it was a number, it would be a one.
So, to make that, I might go like this:
This key here, bottom left, and all three on the right,
so just like that, and then sort of a backwards "L" or something.
To make a capital letter, you have to put a mark before it.
The bottom right hand corner of the cell, is the dot that indicates a capital,
and then if I just hit a "b", so then it's a capital "B".
So, that's how you have to do that.
Yeah, there's all sorts of different ways to indicate stuff.
The funny thing about it is, could you imagine being in class, and having to hear this:
[rapid clicking]
That's easy to concentrate isn't it?
Makin' all that racket!
♪ [bumper music]
♪
I guess this is why they don't have Braille nametags, right?
Hi, how are you?