3. Signs, Symbols, and Characters - SusanJ/UEB_back GitHub Wiki

A currently accepted terminology related to print is the Unicode concept of characters. Braille codes represent print characters with braille cells. Since there are only 63 different six-dot braille cells it isn’t possible to represent a sufficient number of print characters using only one braille cell to represent one character. Here I follow the usage of the manual for The Nemeth Braille Code for Mathematics and Science Notation in which “the word sign is used in referring to a character or sequence of characters in ink print, wheras the word symbol is used in referring to a character or sequence of characters [i.e. braille cells] in braille.” In other words, braille codes use braille symbols to represent print characters.

UEB was designed so that the same braille symbol is always used to represent the same print character. However, as stated in Rulebook Sec. 2.4.2, the reverse is not always true. That is, the same braille symbol can represent more than one print character or sign. For one example, the same braille symbols that represent the letters"a-j" in UEB’s default mode represent the digits “1-9” and “0” in UEB’s numeric mode. Another example is the use of braille cell dots-35 to represent both print signs “en” and “enough” (in contracted braille) and also to indicate the superscript formatting effect. Braille readers use context and other strategies to determine the meaning of braille symbols with multiple possible interpretations. (See Rulebook Sec.2.4.3 for more information.) Automated backtranslation applications also have to use special strategies for dealing with this situation.