Rules of Unified English Braille, Third Edition 2024
International Council on English Braille (ICEB). Checked September 26, 2026.
Cited on
What we take from it (45 statements)
- Where in it
- Foreword to the Third Edition, p. xv; section numbers cited per claim
- Recorded
- By 2016, all member countries had adopted and implemented UEB as the code of their land.
- Used for
- Every rule claim on this site cites a section of this book. Its text is paraphrased, never reproduced.
- By 2016 every member country of the International Council on English Braille, the United States among them, had adopted and implemented Unified English Braille. ICEB Foreword to the Third Edition
- Older forms of English braille, including English Braille American Edition (EBAE), write the words a, and, for, of, the and with joined together, use contractions UEB dropped (such as to, into, by, ble, com and ation), and write brackets, dashes and some quotation marks differently. ICEB 1.3.1–1.3.3
- Uncontracted (grade 1) braille spells every word letter by letter; contracted (grade 2) braille also uses contractions, signs that stand for whole words or groups of letters. ICEB 2.5
- Use uncontracted braille for readers who have not learned contractions, for words whose spelling matters, and for foreign words. ICEB 2.5.4
- Uncontracted braille is not the same as grade 1 mode: grade 1 mode exists only after a grade 1 indicator or a numeric indicator. ICEB 2.5.2–2.5.3
- In Grade 2, a letter standing alone, with a space, hyphen or dash on each side, would be read as a whole word, so it takes the grade 1 indicator ⠰ in front. The letters a, i and o need no indicator, because on their own they are not contractions. ICEB 2.6.1, 5.2.1, 5.7.1
- The numeric indicator ⠼ (dots 3-4-5-6) turns the letters a to j after it into the digits 1 to 9 and 0. ICEB 6.1
- One numeric indicator covers the digits, full stops and commas after it. A space and most other signs end the number, so after the colon in a time or the slash in a date the digits take a new numeric indicator. ICEB 6.2.1, 6.3.1
- The numeric indicator also sets grade 1 mode. Straight after a digit, a full stop or a comma, only a lowercase letter a to j needs the grade 1 indicator ⠰, because it would otherwise read as a digit. ICEB 6.5
- A capital letter is two cells: dot 6 (⠠) followed by the lowercase letter. ICEB 8.3.1
- Two capital signs ⠠⠠ put the rest of a word in capitals, three ⠠⠠⠠ start a passage of three or more capitalised words, and ⠠⠄ ends capitals. ICEB 8.4–8.6
- The forward slash is two cells, ⠸⠌. The single cell ⠌ is the contraction for st. ICEB 7.4
- The percent sign is ⠨⠴. ICEB 3.21
- The number sign (hash) is ⠸⠹, not the numeric indicator ⠼. ICEB 3.19
- UEB sorts its contractions into nine types, and each type has its own rules about where its signs may be used. ICEB 2.2, 10.1–10.9
- Shortforms are abbreviated spellings of particular words, such as ⠁⠃ for about. They are used only for the words in the shortforms list in the Rules and the longer words listed with them. ICEB 10.9, Appendix 1
- A letters-sequence at the start of a word takes the grade 1 indicator ⠰ in front when it would otherwise be read as a longer word built from a shortform. Without it, blvd (⠃⠇⠧⠙) would read as a word built from ⠃⠇, the shortform for blind, and LLC as one built from ⠇⠇, the shortform for little. Words such as blue, black and llama cannot be read that way, so they need no indicator. ICEB 10.9.8
- A braille cell has six dot positions in two columns of three: dots 1, 2 and 3 run down the left column and dots 4, 5 and 6 down the right. ICEB 1.1.1
- Braille order sets the 63 cells out in seven lines. Line 1 (a to j) uses only dots 1, 2, 4 and 5. Line 2 (k to t) adds dot 3 to each of them. Line 3 adds dots 3 and 6, and its first five cells are u, v, x, y and z. Line 4 adds dot 6, and its last cell is w. ICEB 1.1.2
- The six dot positions make 64 patterns. One of them, with no dots raised, is the space, so 63 cells have at least one dot. ICEB 1.1.2
- Braille was first made for French and later adapted for English and many other languages. ICEB 1.1.5
- In UEB each print symbol has one braille sign, whatever the subject. ICEB 1.2.4
- A fraction printed as one character, such as ½, uses the simple fraction line ⠌ (dots 3-4), which keeps numeric mode going. A fraction printed with a slash, such as 1/2, keeps the slash ⠸⠌, so the number after it takes a new numeric indicator. ICEB 6.2.1, 6.3.1, 11.3.1
- While the grade 1 mode set by a number lasts, the letters after it are not contracted, so 1st is written with s and t rather than the st sign. ICEB 6.5.3
- A space, hyphen or dash ends the grade 1 mode a number sets. After a hyphen, a letter that could be read as a contraction takes the grade 1 indicator. ICEB 6.5.1, 6.5.4
- When print groups the digits of one number with spaces, UEB writes each of those spaces as dot 5, so the whole number needs only one numeric indicator. ICEB 6.6.1
- UEB writes a dash as ⠠⠤ (dots 6, 3-6) whatever its length in print. The long dash ⠐⠠⠤ is used only when print has both a short and a long dash. ICEB 7.2, 7.2.4
- Double quotation marks are one cell each, ⠦ to open and ⠴ to close. Single quotation marks put dot 6 in front: ⠠⠦ and ⠠⠴. ICEB 7.6.1, 7.6.2
- The question mark and the opening double quotation mark share the cell ⠦. At the start of a word it opens a quotation; anywhere else it is a question mark. ICEB 7.5, 7.6.7
- The apostrophe is ⠄ (dot 3). Print often uses one character for both the apostrophe and the closing single quotation mark, so software has to decide from position and cannot always get it right. ICEB 7.6.6, 7.6.13
- A punctuation mark in a position where it would be read as a contraction takes the grade 1 indicator, such as a question mark standing alone. ICEB 7.1.3, 7.5.3
- UEB’s currency signs are two cells, dot 4 and then a letter, such as ⠈⠎ for $ and ⠈⠇ for £, and they go where print puts them. ICEB 3.10
- The full stop is ⠲ (dots 2-5-6), the comma ⠂ (dot 2) and the question mark ⠦ (dots 2-3-6). ICEB 7.1, 7.5
- An indicator is a braille sign with no print symbol of its own; it tells the reader how to read the signs after it. ICEB 2.1
- Apart from a few indicators, a UEB sign of two or more cells is one or more prefixes followed by a root. The prefixes are the numeric indicator and the seven cells made only from dots 4, 5 and 6; every other cell is a root. ICEB 1.2.5–1.2.7
- Punctuation follows print, apart from a few rules for particular marks. ICEB 7.1.1
- A letter with an accent or other modifier is written with the modifier sign before the letter, wherever the mark sits in print. ICEB 4.2.1
- UEB writes the apostrophe as ⠄ (dot 3), a different sign from the single quotation marks ⠠⠦ and ⠠⠴. ICEB 7.6.2, 7.6.6
- Print often uses the same mark for an apostrophe and a single quotation mark, so ICEB accepts that software cannot always choose between them correctly without a transcriber. Where nothing better is available, it may decide by whether there are letters on each side of the mark. ICEB 7.6.13–7.6.15
- ICEB's examples of the apostrophe ⠄ include “rock ’n’ roll”, where both marks are apostrophes, and “the '90s”. ICEB 7.6.6
- A quotation mark standing alone reads as a wordsign: ⠦ as his, ⠴ as was, ⠠⠦ as His and ⠠⠴ as Was. ICEB 7.6.8, 7.6.10
- UEB writes a print dash as ⠠⠤. The long dash ⠐⠠⠤ is used only when the print uses both a short and a long dash. ICEB 7.2, 7.2.4
- An alphabetic or strong wordsign stands for its word only when the word stands alone: a space, hyphen or dash on each side, with nothing between but punctuation such as quotation marks, brackets or a full stop. It is also used before an apostrophe and d, ll, re, s, t or ve, as in it’s ⠭⠄⠎ and you’ll ⠽⠄⠇⠇. ICEB 2.6, 10.1.1–10.1.2, 10.2.1–10.2.2
- The strong contractions for and, for, of, the and with, the strong groupsigns such as th and ing, and the initial-letter contractions such as one are used wherever their letters occur, inside longer words too, unless another rule limits them. ICEB 10.3.1, 10.4.1, 10.7.1
- The lower groupsign for be is used when be forms the first syllable of a word, as in become. In been, best and better it does not, so the b and the e are written out. ICEB 10.6.1