Accessible Games

Celebrating World Braille Day

By: Jacob Wood, January 4, 2026 Accessibility

January 4th of each year is World Braille Day. It’s a great time to reflect on this nearly 200-year-old tactile writing system that continues to improve literacy and access to this day.

To celebrate, I’m going to post the full text of an article I wrote for Accessible Gaming Quarterly Issue 13. It’s all about how to include tactile writing systems, inspired by Braille, in your fantasy campaigns.

Tactile Writing in your Fantasy Games

Disclaimer: I learned basic Braille at the Oregon Commission for the Blind, but I am not proficient in its use.

 

An interesting concept keeps sneaking its way into different fantasy games and stories. Some of them I’ve written, but other people keep toying around with this idea too.

What if Braille, or a similar system of tactile writing, existed in a fantasy world?

The first thing that springs to mind is Braille spellbooks. Blind wizards could manage their own books and scrolls, and they’d be written in a way that most other wizards couldn’t interpret. They’d be perfect for keeping powerful spells away from prying eyes.

That’s a concept I have toyed with a not-yet-complete Pip System™ game called Super Able. The concept has also shown up in the ancestry I wrote for Limitless Quests, the Visari. You may also remember way back to Accessible Gaming Quarterly Issue 4 (April 2021) when Linus Anderson wrote Character Spotlight: Karishtina and included a tactile spellbook for a blind centaur mage.

Tactile print doesn’t only appear in books though. What else can we imagine for this writing style?

First, a Brief History of Braille

In our world, Braille dates back about 200 years.

In the early 1800s, a French man in Napolean’s army named Charles Barbier was concerned about how many soldiers were meeting their untimely demise while using lanterns to read messages after dark. The light of the lamps made them vulnerable to their enemies (which, incidentally, is the same reason you should avoid casting light while in a dungeon filled with goblins).

Barbier invented a system of tactile dots he called “night writing.” The system used tactile dots, two columns wide and six rows tall, that soldiers could read with their fingertips under the cover of darkness.

Several years later, Barbier demonstrated his system to students at the National Institute of the Blind in Paris, where a boy named Louis Braille was attending school. Braille liked the concept, but found a flaw with night writing—each cell (the group of 2×6 dots that madeletters) was too big for a single fingertip to read in one pass.

Over several years, Braille refined the system and trimmed it down to a svelt 2×3 grid, or cell, of dots. The smaller cells were easier to read with just a single touch of a fingertip.

Source: https://brailleworks.com/braille-resources/history-of-braille/

Nowadays, Braille is used in books and music scores, on playing cards and dice, and even on drive-up ATMs.

Although its use seems to be declining due to the advent of computers and text-to-speech systems, it’s still used in many places to this day.

Braille, Reimagined

It’s not a stretch to think that a system of writing developed in the early 1800s could be independently invented in other worlds and at other times. It also isn’t a stretch to think that ancient civilizations of elves, dwarves, and creatures of the deep might have invented something similar.

Here are a few ideas you can use to add tactile scripts to your own games.

Deep Script

Deep gnomes, sometimes called sverfneblin, live in the dankest, darkest recesses of the earth. Even with their innate ability to see in the dark, it’s hard to find enough light to reliably read by.

That’s why they invented Deep Script (called “svartschreitung” in their tongue, but that’s sort of a mouthful). This series of shallow holes is carved into stone and is easy to read with even their small fingertips.

All literate deep gnomes understand deep script. In fact, most of them don’t read any other kind of written language because their eyes simply aren’t adapted for it.

Using deep script, these gnomes leave each other signs at critical junctures in cavern passes. If you can read the script, they tell you which way to go. Unfortunately, deep script is prone to tampering by goblins and other mischievous sorts. More than one gnome has lost their way when they misinterpreted an altered sign.

Root Writing

Dwarves have a reputation for being ingenious engineers, but few people would consider them experts at espionage. That’s just the way they like it, too.

Hundreds of years ago, a grizzled dwarven veteran came up with a brilliant way to disguise clandestine messages. By carving them in a tactile script on root vegetables (a dwarven staple), she found that she could pass hidden messages to others who understood the script. Then, once the reader was done, they could eat the message and leave no trace of it.

Even to this day, few people outside dwarven society are aware of this practice.

This script isn’t just taught to soldiers though. Blind dwarves learn root writing so they can read and write too (although they usually carve upon stone so their messages are more permanent.)

Nettlemark

Elves live hundreds of years, but they aren’t immune to age-related vision loss. Because so many ancient elves are nearly blind, they long ago developed a unique tactile script so they could continue storing their vast wisdom in an accessible format.

Nearly all elven writing that is intended for long-term use is written in nettlemark. It is tactile, but also easy enough to read by sight. Even young children learn this script at an early age and continue to use it for their entire lives.

Nettlemark is commonly carved into wood because it is abundant (at least near elven homes) and easy enough to quickly carve upon. Elves use different types of wood depending on the purpose of the message. They use soft woods for short-term messages (letters to friends, messages to allies, magic scrolls intended for use), hard woods for long-term messages (contracts, signs, grimoires), and petrified woods for anything that needs to last as long as possible (library books and historical records).

BaldwinsonofBrundwensfingertiptype

(Translation: Baldwin, son of Brundwen’s, fingertip type)

Baldwin, son of Brundwen, is a hill gnome who lost his vision in an explosive alchemical accident. After realizing he could no longer read any of his alchemical notes or engineering schematics, he fell into despair for fifty years.

Then one day, he just snapped out of it. Without a word to anyone, he set about making a machine that stamped holes into stone and then treated the rock to an alchemical bath that somehow made it even more durable than usual.

The odd machine functioned exactly as Baldwin expected, but nobody else had any idea what it was supposed to do. Those who knew Baldwin at the time say that he simply grinned ear-to-ear when it was complete.

Eventually, Baldwin explained the purpose of the holes and the stone. He created a method of writing letters, numbers, and periodic tables that he could feel with his fingertips and interpret in his mind.

Word soon spread, and eventually he taught other blind gnomes how to read and write the script.

Over the years, the machine has been improved upon. Modern models fit easily into a typical bag of holding.

Scent Script

Less of a tactile script and more of an olfactory phenomenon, scent script was invented by an ingenious gnoll around two hundred years ago. This writing style combines the instinctual act of marking one’s territory with the deliberate act of writing.

Only creatures with a powerful sense of smell can detect scent script, let alone interpret its meaning. Even the magical powers of a helm of understanding can’t give the wearer the power to detect this writing style. That makes it perfect for espionage and other clandestine activities.

Since all creatures have their own unique odors and senses, even two different ancestries of people have a hard time interpreting writing from other groups. Lizardfolk may have developed their own style of scent script, but they wouldn’t be able to read a gnoll’s scent writing without being given specific instructions and undergoing years of practice.

The biggest downside to scent script is its volatility. Too much rain, wind, or prestidigitation can cause the writing to decay rapidly. That makes it best for short-term messages rather than long-term knowledge retention.

Stone Whispers

When you hear the whistle and hush of wind as it blows through a mountain pass, you may be listening to a deliberate form of writing crafted by the range’s stone giant inhabitants.

Stone whispers are an intricate form of tactile writing that cuts through the earth itself. By carving lines and patterns in various depths throughout the stone, the giants can write deliberate messages that others can read by sight or touch.

Stone whispers have other unique properties, though. When the wind hits them just right, they practically sing. They can be created to send audible messages far and wide throughout a mountain pass, canyon, or gully. Most people who hear these messages simply mistake them for the howl of the wind, but those who are attuned to them can interpret their meaning.

Stone whispers can be triggered by magical spells that manipulate the wind, and heavier breezes create louder sounds. Some stone whispers are even capable of reproducing magical effects when the wind hits them just right, making them a sort of reusable scroll that can only be cast with the perfect wind speed.

What tactile scripts can you think of?

These are just a few ideas for new tactile scripts to use in your fantasy games. Do you have any ideas for new varieties? Or do these spark any creative game ideas?

Let us know in the comments.