In addition to letters, the Braille alphabet includes combination of dots for punctuation, capitalization and numbers. In the Braille alphabet is depicted by a cell that contains six raised dots, numbered one through six beginning with the dot in the upper left-hand corner with the number descending the columns. The cell is divided into three rows of two columns. A letter is indicated by which dots are raised and which are smooth. Any letter can be capitalized by placing an indicator in front of the letter.
Capitalization is indicated by a cell with only the sixth dot, or the last dot of the cell in the lower right hand corner of the cell, raised while the rest are smooth. This cell appears in front of a letter cell to show capitalization. To capitalize an entire word, two cells with only the sixth dot raised in each cell is placed in front of the first letter of the word.
To learn the Braille alphabet, you must first learn the letters A through J as all other letters in the Braille alphabet build off these first 10 letters and only have raised dots in the first two rows. For the letters K though J, a raised dot is added to the combinations of dots that form A through J. For U to Z, another raised dot is added to the letters for K though J. Depicting any of these letters as a capital is as easy as placing the capitalization cell in front of the letter.
A capital word commonly occurs following punctuation such as a period. A period is depicted with dots two, five and six raised. After the period, the capitalization cell would appear to let the reader know a new sentence is beginning and the word following the period is capitalized. Braille allows the blind or visually impaired to read signs or books through just using their hands as quickly and easily as someone with perfect 20/20 vision could.