Many people know of the writing system for the blind invented in 1825 by Louis Braille. Fewer know of an alternative orthographic system called Moon, after its inventor, William Moon. Moon was mostly eclipsed by Braille’s more compact system, yet the system remains in use today because of certain advantages it has over Braille. Moon is generally regarded as easier to learn for people who are blind later in life, have learning disabilities, or just have trouble learning Braille.
William Moon was born on December 18, 1818 in Horsmonden in England. As a child, he fell ill with scarlet fever, which was a serious disease before the discovery of penicillin. As a result of his illness, he was left blind in one eye and visually impaired in the other. He attended a school in London with sighted children, and though Braille was not known in England at that time, he learned some of the embossed reading codes that were available. His sight gradually deteriorated until he was totally blind at age 21. Though he had originally wished to become a minister, his blindness led him to his career as a teacher for the blind. As he taught his pupils, he realized that some of them were having great difficulties learning to read with the tactile alphabets then in use, and he decided to develop one of his own. He came up with a system with large, open characters based in part on the Roman alphabet. Eight of the letters are unchanged from the Roman alphabet (C,I,J,L,O,U,V and Z); of the remaining letters, 13 are based on partial forms (for example, A is represented by an angle, as of an A without the crossbar). These 13 letters are A, B, D, E, F, K, N, M, P, Q, S, T and X. Finally, five letters (G, H, R, W & Y) are denoted by new forms which Dr. Moon invented. To his great joy, Moon discovered that his system made learning to read by touch considerably easier for his pupils, in particular one boy who could not succeed with any other system. With money from a blind benefactor, Dr. Moon was able to set up a printing press to print works in his design. He continued to travel and promote his system until his death in 1894.
Although Moon’s system is relatively unknown, it is still in use today. Older people who have trouble distinguishing the tactile dots of Braille’s code, and others who come to blindness later in life often find Moon easier to learn. While books printed in Moon are bulkier and hard to find, they are available, and Moon can serve as a stepping stone to build the confidence needed to learn Braille. So-called “Grade 2″ Moon utilizes additional signs and an elementary shorthand to expand the usefulness of the code while making it less bulky. Check out the code at http://www.bsblind.co.uk/full/moon/moontype.htm, and a fun online Moon generator exists at http://people.cs.ubc.ca/~knoll/moon.html. Attractive and easy to learn, Dr. Moon’s invention has served his purpose well.
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