This article contains Unicode Braille characters. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Braille characters.

Braille code where the word ⠏⠗⠑⠍⠊⠑⠗ (premier, French for "first") can be read.

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The Braille system is a method that is widely used by people who are visually impaired to read and write, and was the first digital form of writing.^[1]

Braille was devised in 1825 by Louis Braille, a blind Frenchman.^[2] Each Braille character, or cell, is made up of six dot positions, arranged in a rectangle containing two columns of three dots each. A dot may be raised at any of the six positions to form sixty-four (2⁶) possible subsets, including the arrangement in which no dots are raised. For reference purposes, a particular permutation may be described by naming the positions where dots are raised, the positions being universally numbered 1 to 3, from top to bottom, on the left, and 4 to 6, from top to bottom, on the right. For example, dots 1-3-4 (⠍) would describe a cell with three dots raised, at the top and bottom in the left column and on top of the right column, i.e., the letter m. The lines of horizontal Braille text are separated by a space, much like visible printed text, so that the dots of one line can be differentiated from the Braille text above and below. Punctuation is represented by its own unique set of characters.

History[link]

The Braille system was based on a method of communication originally developed by Charles Barbier in response to Napoleon's demand for a code that soldiers could use to communicate silently and without light at night called night writing. Barbier's system of sets of 12 embossed dots encoding 36 different sounds was too difficult for soldiers to perceive by touch, and was rejected by the military. In 1821 he visited the National Institute for the Blind in Paris, where he met Louis Braille. Braille identified the two major defects of the code: first, by representing only sounds, the code was unable to give the orthography of the words; second, the human finger could not encompass the whole symbol without moving, and so could not move rapidly from one symbol to another. His modification was to use a 6 dot cell – the Braille system – representing all the letters of the alphabet.

At first the system was a one-to-one transliteration of French, but soon various abbreviations and contractions were developed, creating a system much more like shorthand.

Derivation[link]

Braille is derived from the Latin alphabet, albeit indirectly. In Braille's original system, the points were assigned according to the position of the letter within the alphabetic order of the French alphabet, with diacritic letters sorted at the end.^[3]

The first ten letters of the alphabet, A–J, use the upper four dot positions, 1, 2, 4, 5: ⠁⠃⠉⠙⠑⠋⠛⠓⠊⠚. These also stand for the numerals 1–0 in a system parallel to Hebrew gematria and Greek isopsephy. (Though the dots are assigned in no obvious order, the first three letters and lowest numerals, ABC ~ 123 ⠁⠃⠉, and the vowels, AEI ⠁⠑⠊, have the fewest dots, whereas the even numerals 4680 are corners, ⠙⠋⠓⠚.)

The next ten letters, K–T, are identical to A–J, respectively, apart from the addition of a dot at position 3: ⠅⠇⠍⠝⠕⠏⠟⠗⠎⠞. The next ten letters are the same again, but with dots at both 3 and 6. Here W was left out as not being part of the basic alphabet; the order is U V X Y Z Ç É À È Ù ⠥⠧⠭⠽⠵⠯⠿⠷⠮⠾. The next ten, ending in W, are the same again, except that for this series position 6 is used without position 3. These are Â Ê Î Ô Û Ë Ï Ü Ö W ⠡⠣⠩⠹⠱⠫⠻⠳⠪⠺. The A–J series lowered in dot space become punctuation: comma, semicolon, colon, period, (not used), exclamation point, parentheses, question mark, (not used), quotation marks: ⠂⠆⠒⠲⠢⠖⠶⠦⠔⠴. A and C, which only use the top row, were lowered two spaces for the apostrophe and hyphen: ⠄⠤. In addition, a few letters used upper-space patterns which are not letters by themselves: 4 (by itself the acute accent for letters other than É) with 3, 3-6, and 6 makes Ì, Ò, decimal point, ⠌⠬⠨; 4-5 with the same makes Ä, numeral sign, ellipsis: ⠜⠼⠸

Form[link]

Braille can be seen as the world's first binary encoding scheme for representing the characters of a writing system. The system as originally invented by Braille consists of two parts:

1. A character encoding for mapping characters of the French language to tuples of six bits or dots.
2. A way of representing six-bit characters as raised dots in a Braille cell.

Today different Braille codes (or code pages) are used to map character sets of different languages to the six bit cells. Different Braille codes are also used for different uses like mathematics and music. However, because the six-dot Braille cell only offers 63 possible combinations (2⁶ − 1 = 63), of which some are omitted because they feel the same (having the same dots pattern in a different position, e.g. ⠊ and ⠔), many Braille characters have different meanings based on their context. Therefore, character mapping is not one-to-one.

In addition to simple encoding, modern Braille transcription uses contractions to increase reading speed. (See: Contracted Braille)

Writing Braille[link]

Braille may be produced by hand using a slate and stylus in which each dot is created from the back of the page, writing in mirror image, or it may be produced on a Braille typewriter or Perkins Brailler. Braille may also be produced using a computer with Braille translation software and a Braille embosser or a refreshable Braille display.

Braille has been extended to an 8-dot code, particularly for use with Braille embossers and refreshable Braille displays. In 8-dot Braille the additional dots are added at the bottom of the cell, giving a matrix 4 dots high by 2 dots wide. The additional dots are given the numbers 7 (for the lower-left dot) and 8 (for the lower-right dot). Eight-dot Braille has the advantages that the case of an individual letter is directly coded in the cell containing the letter and that all the printable ASCII characters can be represented in a single cell. All 256 (2⁸) possible combinations of 8 dots are encoded by the Unicode standard. Braille with six dots is frequently stored as Braille ASCII.

The first ten letters of the alphabet are formed using only the top four dots (1, 2, 4, and 5). Reminiscent of Greek numerals, these symbols also represent the digits 1 through 9 and 0^[4] (preceded by the symbol [number follows]; [number follows]j also stands for 10, within context).^[5] Adding dot 3 forms the next ten letters, and adding dot 6 forms the last six letters (except w) and the words and, for, of, the, and with. Omitting dot 3 from the letters U-Z and the five word symbols form nine digraphs (ch, gh, sh, th, wh, ed, er, ou, and ow) and the letter w.

Letters and numbers[link]

• 

  a or 1 (dot 1)

• 

  b or 2 (dots 1-2)

• 

  c or 3 (dots 1-4)

• 

  d or 4 (dots 1-4-5)

• 

  e or 5 (dots 1-5)

• 

  f or 6 (dots 1-2-4)

• 

  g or 7 (dots 1-2-4-5)

• 

  h or 8 (dots 1-2-5)

• 

  i or 9 (dots 2-4)

• 

  j or 0 (dots 2-4-5)

• 

  k (dots 1-3)

• 

  l (dots 1-2-3)

• 

  m (dots 1-3-4)

• 

  n (dots 1-3-4-5)

• 

  o (dots 1-3-5)

• 

  p (dots 1-2-3-4)

• 

  q (dots 1-2-3-4-5)

• 

  r (dots 1-2-3-5)

• 

  s (dots 2-3-4)

• 

  t (dots 2-3-4-5)

• 

  u (dots 1-3-6)

• 

  v (dots 1-2-3-6)

• 

  w (dots 2-4-5-6)

• 

  x (dots 1-3-4-6)

• 

  y (dots 1-3-4-5-6)

• 

  z (dots 1-3-5-6)

Other symbols[link]

• 

  Capital letter follows (dot 6)

• 

  Number follows (dots 3-4-5-6)

• 

  Apostrophe (dot 3)

• 

  Full stop (Period) (dots 2-5-6)

• 

  Comma (dot 2)

• 

  Semicolon (dots 2-3)

• 

  Exclamation point (dots 2-3-5)

• 

  Opening quotation mark, question mark * (dots 2-3-6)

• 

  Closing quotation mark (dots 3-5-6)

• 

  Bracket (Parentheses) ** (dots 2-3-5-6)

• 

  Hyphen (dots 3-6)

• 

  Colon (dots 2-5)

Note:

* The question mark is represented by dots 2-3-6 – the same as the opening quotation mark. Therefore the placement of the dots – before a word or after a word – will determine which symbol it is.

** Opening and closing parentheses are shown with the same symbol. Therefore, the placement context (whether it is at the beginning or end of a group of symbols) will determine whether the parenthesis is opening or closing.

Contracted Braille[link]

• 

  The word AND (dots 1-2-3-4-6)

• 

  The letters CH (dots 1-6)

• 

  The letters SH (dots 1-4-6)

• 

  The letters ST (dots 3-4)

• 

  The letters TH (dots 1-4-5-6)

This is just a small sample of some of the contractions that are used in Contracted Braille. More information about Contracted Braille is below in the section on Braille transcription.

Braille also includes a number of whole word contractions, for example the word Braille becomes a three cell word brl.

Unicode rendering table[link]

The Unicode standard encodes 8-dot Braille glyphs according to their binary appearance, rather than following the alphabetic order of any particular convention. Unicode defines the "Braille Patterns" character block in the hex codepoint range from 2800 to 28FF. Dot 1 corresponds to the least significant bit of the low byte of the Unicode scalar value, and dot 8 to the high bit of that byte.

Most Braille embossers and refreshable Braille displays do not yet support the Unicode rendering table; instead they use Braille ASCII for 6-dot Braille. Some embossers have proprietary control codes for 8-dot Braille and/or for full graphics mode (where dots may be placed anywhere on the page without leaving any space between Braille cells, hence continuous lines can be drawn in diagrams) but these are rarely used and are not standard.

Page dimensions[link]

Most Braille embossers support between 34 and 37 cells per line, and between 25 and 28 lines per page.

A manually operated Perkins Braille typewriter supports a maximum of 42 cells per line (its margins are adjustable), and typical paper allows 25 lines per page.

A large interlining Stainsby has 36 cells per line and 18 lines per page.

An A4-sized Marburg Braille frame, which allows interpoint Braille (dots on both sides of the page, positioned out of phase so they do not interfere with each other) has 30 cells per line and 27 lines per page.

A refreshable Braille display typically has one line of between 18 and 40 cells, although 80 is possible.

Literacy[link]

A sighted child who is reading at a basic level should be able to understand common words and answer simple questions about the information presented.^[6] He should also have enough fluency to get through the material in a timely manner. Over the course of a child's education, these foundations are built upon in order to teach higher levels of math, science, and comprehension skills.^[6] Children who are blind not only have the educational disadvantage of not being able to see, but they also miss out on the very fundamental parts of early and advanced education if not provided with the necessary tools.

U.S. Braille literacy statistics[link]

In 1960, 50% of legally blind, school-age children were able to read Braille in the U.S.^[7][8] According to the 2007 Annual Report from the American Printing House for the Blind, there are approximately 57,696 legally blind children in the U.S. Out of those school-age children, only 10% use Braille as their primary reading medium.^[9]

There are numerous causes for the decline in Braille usage, including school budget constraints, technology advancement, and different philosophical views over how blind children should be educated.^[10]

A key turning point for Braille literacy was the passage of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, an act of Congress that moved thousands of children from specialized schools for the blind into mainstream public schools.^[8] Because only a small percentage of public schools could afford to train and hire Braille-qualified teachers, Braille literacy has declined since the law took effect.^{[clarification needed][8]} Braille literacy rates have improved slightly since the bill was passed,^{[clarification needed]} in part because of pressure from consumers and advocacy groups that has led 27 states to pass legislation mandating that children who are legally blind be given the opportunity to learn Braille.^[10]

In 1998–99, there were approximately 55,200 legally blind children, but only 5,500 of them used Braille as their primary reading medium.^[11][12] Early Braille education is crucial to literacy for a visually impaired child. A study conducted in the state of Washington found that people who learned Braille at an early age did just as well, if not better, than their sighted peers in several areas, including vocabulary and comprehension. In the preliminary adult study, while evaluating the correlation between adult literacy skills and employment, it was found that 44% of the participants who had learned to read in Braille were unemployed, compared to the 77% unemployment rate of those who had learned to read using print.^[13] Currently, among the estimated 85,000 blind adults in the United States, 90% of those who are Braille literate are employed. Among adults who do not know Braille, only 33% are employed.^[8] Statistically, history has proven that Braille reading proficiency provides an essential skill set that allows visually impaired children not only to compete with their sighted peers in a school environment, but also later in life as they enter the workforce.^[10]

Though Braille is thought to be the main way blind people read and write, in Britain (for example) out of the reported 2 million visually impaired population, it is estimated that only around 15–20 thousand people use Braille. Younger people are turning to electronic text on computers with screen reader software instead, a more portable communication method that they can also use with their friends. A debate has started on how to make Braille more attractive and for more teachers to be available to teach it.

Braille transcription[link]

Braille Writer

Braille on a box of tablets

Braille book and the same book in standard inkprint

Although it is possible to transcribe Braille by simply substituting the equivalent Braille character for its printed equivalent, such a character-by-character transcription (known as Uncontracted Braille) is used by beginners.

Braille characters are much larger than their printed equivalents, and the standard 11" by 11.5" (28 cm × 30 cm) page has room for only 25 lines of 43 characters. To reduce space and increase reading speed, virtually all Braille books are transcribed in what is known as Contracted Braille, which uses a system of braille abbreviations to reduce space and to speed the process of reading. As with most human linguistic activities, Contracted Braille embodies a complex system of customs, styles, and practices. The Library of Congress's Instruction Manual for Braille Transcribing runs to nearly 200 pages. Braille transcription is skilled work, and Braille transcribers need to pass certification tests.

In English, the system of Contracted Braille contractions begins with a set of 23 words which are contracted to single characters. Thus the word but is contracted to the single letter b, can to c, do to d, and so on. Even this simple rule creates issues requiring special cases; for example, d is, specifically, an abbreviation of the verb do; the noun do representing the note of the musical scale is a different word, and must be spelled out.

Portions of words may be contracted, and many rules govern this process. For example, the character with dots 2-3-5 (the letter "f" lowered in the Braille cell) stands for "ff" when used in the middle of a word. At the beginning of a word, this same character stands for the word "to" although the character is written in Braille with no space following it; this contraction was removed in the Unified English Braille Code. At the end of a word, the same character represents an exclamation point.

One problem that can occur when reading Contracted Braille is that some contractions are closely similar, even when the words are not. One example compares the contractions "ll", meaning little, and "lr", meaning letter from Barry Hampshire's "Working with Braille".^[14] The Braille notation for the letter "r" differs only by adding one dot to the letter "l". This causes greater confusion between words that are not as similar in normal print and can hinder the learning process of Contracted Braille.

The contraction rules take into account the linguistic structure of the word; thus, contractions are not to be used when their use would alter the usual Braille form of a base word to which a prefix or suffix has been added. And some portions of the transcription rules are not fully codified and rely on the judgment of the transcriber. Thus, when the contraction rules permit the same word in more than one way, preference is given to "the contraction that more nearly approximates correct pronunciation."

Grade 3 Braille is a system that includes many additional contractions, almost a shorthand; it is not used for publication, but is used mostly for individuals for their personal convenience.

Braille reading techniques[link]

Since Braille is one of the few writing systems where tactile perception is used, as opposed to visual perception, a Braille reader must develop new skills. One skill important for Braille readers is the ability to create smooth and even pressures when running one's fingers along the words. There are many different styles and techniques used for the understanding and development of Braille, even though a study by B. F. Holland^[15] suggests that there is no specific technique that is superior to any other.

Another study by Lowenfield & Abel^[16] shows that Braille could be read "the fastest and best... by students who read using the index fingers of both hands." Another important reading skill emphasized in this study is to finish reading the end of a line with the right hand and to find the beginning of the next line with the left hand simultaneously. One final conclusion drawn by both Lowenfield and Abel is that children have difficulty using both hands independently where the right hand is the dominant hand. But this hand preference does not correlate to other activities.

Unified international braille[link]

Braille plate in Duftrosengarten in Rapperswil, Switzerland

When Braille was first adapted to languages other than French, many schemes were adopted, including mapping the native alphabet to the alphabetical order of French – eg. in English W, which was not in the French alphabet at the time, is mapped to braille X, X to Y, Y to Z, and Z to the first French accented letter – or completely rearranging the alphabet such that common letters are represented by the simplest braille patterns. Needless to say, mutual intelligibility was greatly hindered by this state of affairs. In 1878, the International Congress on Work for the Blind, held in Paris, proposed an international braille standard, where braille codes for different languages and scripts would be based, not on the order of a particular alphabet, but on phonetic correspondence and transliteration to Latin.^[17]

This unified braille has been applied to the languages of India and Africa, Arabic, Vietnamese, Hebrew, Russian, and Armenian, as well as nearly all Latin-script languages. Greek, for example, gamma is written as Latin g, despite the fact that it has the alphabetic position of c; Hebrew bet, the second letter of the alphabet and cognate with the Latin letter b, is sometimes pronounced /b/ and sometimes /v/, and is written b or v accordingly; Russian ts is written as c, which is the usual letter for /ts/ in those Slavic languages that use the Latin alphabet; and Arabic f is written as f, despite being historically p, and occurring in that part of the Arabic alphabet (between historic o and q).

Other braille adaptations[link]

Other systems for assigning value to braille patterns are also followed, including the simple mapping of the alphabetical order onto the original French braille order. Some systems of braille start with the unified braille, and then diverge significantly based on the phonology and structure of the target languages, while still other braille systems are completely novel, adopting positional forms, or even syllabic braille cells composed of separate vowel and consonant patterns.

In the case of Mandarin Braille, which is based on Zhuyin rather than the Latin Pinyin alphabet, traditional braille values are used for initial consonants and the simple vowels. In both Mandarin and Cantonese braille, however, each pattern has different values depending on whether they are placed in syllable-initial or syllable-final position. For instance, the block for Latin k, , represents Cantonese k (g in Yale and other modern romanizations) when initial, but aak when final, while Latin j, , represents Cantonese initial j but final oei.

Novel systems of braille mapping include Korean, which adopts separate syllable-initial and syllable-final forms for its consonants, explicitly grouping braille cells into syllabic groups in the same way as Hangul. Japanese, meanwhile, combines independent vowel dot patterns and modifier consonant dot patterns into a single braille cell – an abugida representation of each Japanese mora.

Uses[link]

The current series of Canadian banknotes has a tactile feature consisting of raised dots that indicate the denomination, allowing bills to be easily identified by visually impaired people. It does not use standard Braille; rather, the feature uses a system developed in consultation with blind and visually impaired Canadians after research indicated that not all potential users read Braille.

Mexican bank notes, Indian Rupee notes, and Israeli New Shekel notes^[18] also have special raised symbols to make them identifiable by the visually impaired.

In India there are instances where the parliament acts have been published in Braille, such as 'The Right to Information Act'.

In the United States, the Americans with Disabilities Act requires various building signage to be in Braille.

Unicode[link]

Braille was added to the Unicode Standard in September, 1999 with the release of version 3.0.

The Unicode block for Braille is U+2800 ... U+28FF:

References[link]

1. ↑ Peter Daniels, 1996, "Analog and Digital Writing", in The World's Writing Systems, p 886
2. ↑ Roy, Noëlle, "Louis Braille 1809–1852, a French genius", Valentin Haüy Association website, http://www.avh.asso.fr/download.php?chemin=rubriques/association/dwnld/&filename=Bio_Br_Paris_GB_060109.pdf, retrieved 2011-02-05 
3. ↑ Madeleine Loomis, 1942, The Braille Reference Book [for Grades I, I½, and II].
4. ↑ Shampa Boser (contact) (1999–2010), "About Braille: A Brief History", Canadian Braille Authority website, http://www.canadianbrailleauthority.ca/en/about_braille.php, retrieved 2010-08-12 
5. ↑ Linda Perry, Martha Pamperin, Vileen Shah and Susan Fisher (2009), "Braille Numbers", Hadley School for the Blind website, http://www.hadley.edu/resources_list_detail.asp?resourceid=12, retrieved 2010-08-12 
6. ↑ ^{6.0 6.1} Dr. Grover (Russ) Whitehurst, Research: Evidence Based Education Science and the Challenge of Learning to Read, http://www.childrenofthecode.org/, retrieved 2009-04-20 
7. ↑ American Foundation for the Blind: Programs and Policy Research, "Estimated Number of Adult Braille Readers in the United States", International Braille Research Center (IBRC), http://www.braille.org/papers/jvib0696/vb960329.htm, retrieved 2009-04-15 
8. ↑ ^{8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3} Ranalli, Ralph (2008-01-05), "A Boost for Braille", The Boston Globe, http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/01/05/a_boost_for_braille/, retrieved 2009-04-17 
9. ↑ American Printing House for the Blind (2008), "Facts and Figures on Americans with Vision Loss", American Foundation for the Blind, http://www.afb.org/Section.asp?SectionID=15&DocumentID=4398, retrieved 2009-04-16 
10. ↑ ^{10.0 10.1 10.2} Riles, Ruby, "The Impact of Braille Reading Skills on Employment, Income, Education, and Reading Habits", Braille Research Center, http://www.braille.org/papers/jvib0696/vb960311.htm, retrieved 2009-04-15 
11. ↑ American Printing House for the Blind (A.P.H.) (1999), APH maintains an annual register of legally blind persons in educational settings below the college level, http://www.aph.org, retrieved 2009-04-15 
12. ↑ Ebnet, Matthew (2001-06-30), "Braille Challenge Gives Young Blind Students a Chance to Shine", Los Angeles Times, http://articles.latimes.com/2001/jun/30/local/me-16960, retrieved 2009-04-15 
13. ↑ Riles Ph.D., Ruby (2004), "Research Study: Early Braille Education Vital", Future Reflections, http://www.nfb.org/Images/nfb/Publications/fr/fr14/fr04se22.htm, retrieved 2009-04-15 
14. ↑ Hampshire, Barry. Working with Braille. Paris: Unesco P, 1981.
15. ↑ B.F. Holland, 'Speed and Pressure Factors in Braille Reading', Teachers Forum, Vol. 7, September 1934 pp. 13–17
16. ↑ B. Lowenfield and G. L. Abel, Methods of Teaching Braille Reading Efficiency of Children in Lower Senior Classes. Birmingham, Research Centre for the Education of the Visually Handicapped, 1977
17. ↑ "International Meeting on Braille Uniformity". UNESCO. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0007/000711/071103eb.pdf. Retrieved 2012-04-24. 
18. ↑ http://www.bankisrael.gov.il/catal/eng/cat_all_eng.htm?series_num=10

External links[link]

This article's use of external links may not follow Wikipedia's policies or guidelines. Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links, and converting useful links where appropriate into footnote references. (February 2011)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Braille

Organizations[link]

• Association Valentin Haüy
• Braille Authority of North America
• Braille – American Foundation for the Blind
• National Braille Week
• Scottish Braille Press
• Royal National Institute of Blind People
• Perkins School for the Blind
• National Braille Press – offers a free Braille alphabet card
• Alternate Text Production Center
• Accessible Media Center
• National Braille Association, Inc.
• Royal Blind School.
• Braille Institute of America
• Comité Internacional ProCiegos, IAP – México
• Esha – People for the Blind

Libraries[link]

• Libraries Australia – catalog of Braille in 800+ Australian libraries
• Washington Talking Book & Braille Library – serving residents of the State of Washington, USA
• Braille Institute: Online Public Access Catalog [1]

Learning[link]

• Free Online Interactive Braille Tutorial
• Learning Braille – RNIB (Royal National Institute of Blind People)
• Learn Braille on the Internet For Free
• Braille Bug – an educational site for kids, from the American Foundation for the Blind
• BRL: Braille Through Remote Learning
• On-line Braille Course of University of São Paulo
• Online Braille Generator
• A Braille alphabet card
• Learn Braille online, change own text to Braille, Braille Writer Simulator and more
• Braille Challenge competition for blind students in North America
• English Braille, American Edition 1994, 2002 revision. (The official standard from the Braille Authority of North America)
• Instruction manual for Braille Transcribing (New 2009 Edition) from the Library of Congress Braille Transcription and Certification Program
• BrailleSC.org – Tips, tricks, and resources for learning braille for individuals with visual impairments

History[link]

• Proceedings of “Braille 1809–2009: Writing with six dots and its future”, international conference held at the Headquarters of UNESCO (Paris) from 5 to 8 January 2009
• Celebrating 200 Years of Braille
• Happy Birthday Louis! RNIB celebrates the bicentenary of the birth of Louis Braille
• Louis Braille Online Museum – An all-new illustrated exhibit traces the history of braille and the life of this remarkable inventor.
• How Braille Began – a detailed history of Braille's origins and the people who supported and opposed the system.
• Robert B. Irwin's As I Saw It, 1955, gives a history of the "War of the Dots" that ultimately led to the adoption of the English form of the Braille literary code in the United States and the demise of American Braille and New York Point, its main competitors.
• Making a Newspaper For Sightless Readers: By means of raised dots and lines embossed on manila paper, news of the world is conveyed to the fingertips of the blind Popular Science (monthly, January 1919, pages 24–25, Scanned by Google Books)
• Historically Famous People who were Blind or Visually Impaired
• A precursor of the Braille system in the 13th century.

Documents[link]

• English Braille: American Edition
• Library of Congress Instructional Manual for Braille Transcribing
• Details on Braille cell representation
• Unified (English) Braille Code (including information specific to British Braille)
• Braille code for Russian and transliteration of Cyrillic

Legal[link]

• India-Right to Information Act in Braille
• US copyright exemption for Braille

Language specific resources[link]

• Bharati Braille for Indian Languages
• Braille Without Borders – Braille for Tibetans
• Greek Braille System

other computer resources[link]

• Duxbury DBT software supports Braille production for over 130 languages (offers free downloadable Braille Charts)
• Braille for scripts
• Unicode Braille TTF font (supports all Braille scripts)
• Free fonts which include Braille
• Free Converter from Russian and English to Braille

v t e ⠃⠗⠁⠊⠇⠇⠑  Braille Braille cells (6 or 8 dot) Braille Braille ASCII Braille patterns (Unicode block) Braille scripts and symbols English braille Grade 2 braille Unified English Braille Code Unified international braille Albanian braille Arabic braille Armenian braille Bharati braille (India) Bulgarian braille Greek braille Hebrew braille Russian braille Thai braille Vietnamese braille Yugoslav braille Other alphabets Korean braille Algerian braille Tibetan braille Abugidas Japanese braille Semi-syllabaries Cantonese braille Chinese braille Symbolic Braille music Canadian currency marks Gardner-Salinas braille code (GS8/GS6) Nemeth Braille Technique Braille embosser Braille technology Braille translator Braille watch Mountbatten Brailler Perforation Perkins Brailler Refreshable braille display Slate and stylus Persons Louis Braille Charles Barbier Valentin Haüy Thakur Vishva Narain Singh Sabriye Tenberken William Bell Wait Organisations Braille Institute of America Braille Without Borders Japan Braille Library National Braille Association Blindness organizations Schools for the blind Other tactile writing systems Moon type New York Point Night writing Tactile alphabet Vibratese Related topics Accessible publishing Braille literacy RoboBraille USA Braille flag

Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder at a conference in Salvador, Brazil, in July 2006
Background information
Birth name	Stevland Hardaway Judkins
Also known as	Stevland Hardaway Morris, Little Stevie Wonder, Eivets Rednow
Born	(1950-05-13) May 13, 1950 (age 62) Saginaw, Michigan, United States
Origin	Detroit, Michigan, United States
Genres	Soul, pop, R&B, funk, jazz
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, activist
Instruments	Vocals, synthesizer, piano, keyboards, harmonica, clavinet, drums, bass guitar, congas, bongos, melodica, keytar, accordion
Years active	1961–present
Labels	Tamla, Motown
Website	www.steviewonder.net

Stevland Hardaway Morris (born May 13, 1950 as Stevland Hardaway Judkins),^[1] known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, a child prodigy who developed into one of the most creative musical figures of the late 20th century.^[2] Blind since shortly after birth,^[3] Wonder signed with Motown's Tamla label at the age of eleven,^[2] and continues to perform and record for Motown to this day.

Among Wonder's best known works are singles such as "Superstition", "Sir Duke", "I Wish" and "I Just Called to Say I Love You". Well known albums also include Talking Book, Innervisions and Songs in the Key of Life.^[2] He has recorded more than thirty U.S. top ten hits and received twenty-two Grammy Awards, the most ever awarded to a male solo artist. Wonder is also noted for his work as an activist for political causes, including his 1980 campaign to make Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday a holiday in the United States.^[4] In 2009, Wonder was named a United Nations Messenger of Peace.^[5] In 2008, Billboard magazine released a list of the Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists to celebrate the US singles chart's fiftieth anniversary, with Wonder at number five.

Early life[link]

Stevie Wonder was born in Saginaw, Michigan, in 1950, the third of six children to Calvin Judkins and Lula Mae Hardaway. Owing to his being born six weeks premature, the blood vessels at the back of his eyes had not yet reached the front and their aborted growth caused the retinas to detach.^[3] The medical term for this condition is retinopathy of prematurity, or ROP, and it was exacerbated by the oxygen pumped into his incubator.^[6]

When Stevie Wonder was four, his mother left his father and moved herself and her children to Detroit. She changed her name back to Lula Hardaway and later changed her son's surname to Morris, partly because of relatives. Morris has remained Stevie Wonder's legal surname ever since. He began playing instruments at an early age, including piano, harmonica, drums and bass. During childhood he was active in his church choir.

Discovery and early Motown recordings[link]

Ronnie White of The Miracles gives credit to his brother Gerald White for persistently nagging him to come to his friend's house in 1961 to check out Stevie Wonder.^[7] Afterward, White brought Wonder and his mother to Motown. Impressed by the young musician, Motown CEO Berry Gordy signed Wonder to Motown's Tamla label with the name Little Stevie Wonder.^[1] Before signing, producer Clarence Paul gave Wonder his trademark name after stating "we can't keep calling him the eighth wonder of the world". He then recorded the regional Detroit single, "I Call It Pretty Music, But the Old People Call It the Blues", which was released on Tamla in late 1961. Wonder released his first two albums, The Jazz Soul of Little Stevie and Tribute to Uncle Ray, in 1962, to little success.

Music career[link]

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Early success: 1963–1971[link]

By age 13, Wonder had a major hit, "Fingertips (Pt. 2)", a 1963 single taken from a live recording of a Motor Town Revue performance, issued on the album Recorded Live: The 12 Year Old Genius. The song, featuring Wonder on vocals, bongos, and harmonica, and a young Marvin Gaye on drums, was a #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 and R&B charts, making him the youngest artist to top the former in its history and launching him into the public consciousness.

In 1964, Stevie Wonder made his film debut in Muscle Beach Party as himself, credited as "Little Stevie Wonder". He returned in the sequel released five months later, Bikini Beach. He performed on-screen in both films, singing "Happy Street," and "Happy Feelin' (Dance and Shout)," respectively.

Dropping the "Little" from his name, Wonder went on to have a number of other hits during the mid-1960s, including "Uptight (Everything's Alright)",^[8] "With a Child's Heart", and "Blowin' in the Wind", a Bob Dylan cover, co-sung by his mentor, producer Clarence Paul. He also began to work in the Motown songwriting department, composing songs both for himself and his label mates, including "Tears of a Clown", a number one hit performed by Smokey Robinson & the Miracles.

In 1968 he recorded an album of instrumental soul/jazz tracks, mostly harmonica solos, under the pseudonym (and title) Eivets Rednow, which is "Stevie Wonder" spelled backwards. The album failed to get much attention, and its only single, a cover of "Alfie", only reached number 66 on the U.S. Pop charts and number 11 on the U.S. Adult Contemporary charts. Nonetheless, he managed to score several hits between 1968 and 1970 such as "I Was Made to Love Her";^[8] "For Once in My Life" and "Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours". In September 1970, at the age of 20, Wonder married Syreeta Wright, a songwriter and former Motown secretary. Wright and Wonder co-wrote the songs on the next album, Where I'm Coming From, which did not succeed in the charts. Reaching his twenty-first birthday on May 13, 1971, he allowed his Motown contract to expire.^[9]

In 1970, Wonder co-wrote, and played numerous instruments on the hit "It's a Shame" for fellow Motown act The Spinners. His contribution was meant to be a showcase of his talent and thus a weapon in his ongoing negotiations with Gordy about creative autonomy.^[10]

Classic period: 1972–1976[link]

Wonder independently recorded two albums, which he used as a bargaining tool while negotiating with Motown.^{[citation needed]} Eventually the label agreed to his demands for full creative control and the rights to his own songs. The 120-page contract was a precedent at Motown and gave Wonder a much higher royalty rate.^[11] Wonder returned to Motown in March 1972 with Music of My Mind. Unlike most previous albums on Motown, which usually consisted of a collection of singles, B-sides and covers, Music of My Mind was a full-length artistic statement with songs flowing together thematically.^[11] Wonder's lyrics dealt with social, political, and mystical themes as well as standard romantic ones, while musically Wonder began exploring overdubbing and recording most of the instrumental parts himself.^[11] Music of My Mind marked the beginning of a long collaboration with Tonto's Expanding Head Band (Robert Margouleff and Malcolm Cecil).^[12][13]

	"Superstition" (reduced quality) noicon from Talking Book by Stevie Wonder, Motown 1972-10-27. Sample from Stevie Wonder Song Review: A Greatest Hits Collection, Motown, 1996-12-10
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

Released in late 1972, Talking Book featured the No. 1 hit "Superstition",^[14] which is one of the most distinctive and famous examples of the sound of the Hohner clavinet keyboard.^[15] The song features a rocking groove that garnered Wonder an additional audience on rock radio stations.^{[citation needed]} Talking Book also featured "You Are the Sunshine of My Life", which also peaked at No. 1. During the same time as the album's release, Stevie Wonder began touring with the Rolling Stones to alleviate the negative effects from pigeon-holing as a result of being an R&B artist in America.^[7] Wonder's touring with The Rolling Stones was also a factor behind the success of both "Superstition" and "You Are the Sunshine of My Life".^[11][16] Between them, the two songs won three Grammy Awards.^[17] On an episode of the children's television show Sesame Street that aired in April 1973,^[18] Wonder and his band performed "Superstition", as well as an original song called "Sesame Street Song", which demonstrated his abilities with the "talk box".

Innervisions, released in 1973, featured "Higher Ground" (#4 on the pop charts) as well as the trenchant "Living for the City" (#8).^[14] Both songs reached No. 1 on the R&B charts. Popular ballads such as "Golden Lady" and "All in Love Is Fair" were also present, in a mixture of moods that nevertheless held together as a unified whole.^[19] Innervisions generated three more Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year.^[17] The album is ranked #23 on Rolling Stone Magazine's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.^[20] Wonder had become the most influential and acclaimed black musician of the early 1970s.^[11]

On August 6, 1973, Wonder was in a serious automobile accident while on tour in North Carolina, when a car in which he was riding hit the back of a truck.^[11][21] This left him in a coma for four days and resulted in a partial loss of his sense of smell and a temporary loss of sense of taste.^[22] Despite the setback, Wonder re-appeared in concert at Madison Square Garden in March 1974 with a performance that highlighted both up-tempo material and long, building improvisations on mid-tempo songs such as "Living for the City".^[11] The album Fulfillingness' First Finale appeared in July 1974 and set two hits high on the pop charts: the #1 "You Haven't Done Nothin'" and the Top Ten "Boogie On Reggae Woman". The Album of the Year was again one of three Grammys won.^[17]

The same year Wonder took part in a Los Angeles jam session which would become known by the bootleg album A Toot and a Snore in '74.^[23][24] He also co-wrote and produced the Syreeta Wright album Stevie Wonder Presents: Syreeta.^[25][26]

On October 4, 1975, Wonder performed at the historical "Wonder Dream Concert" in Kingston, Jamaica, a benefit for the Jamaican Institute for the Blind.^[27]

By 1975, in his 25th year, Stevie Wonder had won two consecutive Grammy Awards: in 1974 for Innervisions and in 1975 for Fulfillingness' First Finale.^{[citation needed]} In 1975 he featured on the album It's My Pleasure by Billy Preston, playing harmonica on two tracks.^{[not relevant]}

The double album-with-extra-EP Songs in the Key of Life, was released in September 1976. Sprawling in style, unlimited in ambition, and sometimes lyrically difficult to fathom, the album was hard for some listeners to assimilate, yet is regarded by many as Wonder's crowning achievement and one of the most recognizable and accomplished albums in pop music history.^[11][14][28] The album became the first of an American artist to debut straight at #1 in the Billboard charts, where it remained for 14 non-consecutive weeks.^[29] Two tracks, became #1 Pop/R&B hits "I Wish" and "Sir Duke". The baby-celebratory "Isn't She Lovely?" was written about his newborn daughter Aisha, while songs such as "Love's in Need of Love Today" (which years later Wonder would perform at the post-September 11, 2001 America: A Tribute to Heroes telethon) and "Village Ghetto Land" reflected a far more pensive mood. Songs in the Key of Life won Album of the Year and two other Grammys.^[17] The album ranks 56th on Rolling Stone Magazine's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.^[20]

After such a concentrated and sustained level of creativity, Wonder stopped recording for three years, releasing only the 3 LP Looking Back, an anthology of his first Motown period. The albums Wonder released during this period were very influential on the music world: the 1983 Rolling Stone Record Guide said they "pioneered stylistic approaches that helped to determine the shape of pop music for the next decade";^[14] Rolling Stone magazine's 2003 list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time included four of the five albums, with three in the top 90.^[20]

Commercial period: 1979–1990[link]

It was in Wonder's next phase that he began to commercially reap the rewards of his legendary classic period. The 1980s saw Wonder scoring his biggest hits and reaching an unprecedented level of fame evidenced by increased album sales, charity participation, high-profile collaborations, political impact, and television appearances.

When Wonder did return, it was with the soundtrack album Journey through the Secret Life of Plants (1979), featured in the film The Secret Life of Plants. Mostly instrumental, the album was composed using the Computer Music Melodian, an early sampler. Wonder toured briefly in support of the album, and used a Fairlight CMI sampler on stage.^[30] In this year Wonder also wrote and produced the dance hit "Let's Get Serious", performed by Jermaine Jackson and (ranked by Billboard as the #1 R&B single of 1980).

Hotter than July (1980) became Wonder's first platinum-selling single album, and its single "Happy Birthday" was a successful vehicle for his campaign to establish Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday as a national holiday. The album also included "Master Blaster (Jammin')", "I Ain't Gonna Stand for It", and the sentimental ballad, "Lately".

In 1982, Wonder released a retrospective of his 1970s work with Stevie Wonder's Original Musiquarium, which included four new songs: the ten-minute funk classic "Do I Do" (which featured Dizzy Gillespie), "That Girl" (one of the year's biggest singles to chart on the R&B side), "Front Line", a narrative about a soldier in the Vietnam War that Stevie Wonder wrote and sang in the 1st person, and "Ribbon in the Sky", one of his many classic compositions. Wonder also gained a #1 hit that year in collaboration with Paul McCartney in their paean to racial harmony, "Ebony and Ivory".

In 1983, Wonder performed the song "Stay Gold", the theme to Francis Ford Coppola's film adaptation of S.E. Hinton's novel The Outsiders. Wonder wrote the lyrics.

In 1983, Wonder scheduled an album to be entitled "People Work, Human Play." The album never surfaced and instead 1984 saw the release of Wonder's soundtrack album for The Woman in Red. The lead single, "I Just Called to Say I Love You", was a #1 pop and R&B hit in both the United States and the United Kingdom, where it was placed 13th in the list of best-selling singles in the UK published in 2002. It went on to win an Academy Award for "Best Song" in 1985. The album also featured a guest appearance by Dionne Warwick, singing the duet "It's You" with Stevie and a few songs of her own. The following year's In Square Circle featured the #1 pop hit "Part-Time Lover". The album also has a Top 10 Hit with "Go Home." It also featured the ballad "Overjoyed" which was originally written for Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants, but didn't make the album. He performed "Overjoyed" on Saturday Night Live when he was the host. He was also featured in Chaka Khan's cover of Prince's "I Feel For You", alongside Melle Mel, playing his signature harmonica. In roughly the same period he was also featured on harmonica on Eurythmics' single, "There Must Be an Angel (Playing with My Heart)" and Elton John's "I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues".

By 1985, Stevie Wonder was an American icon,^{[citation needed]} the subject of good-humored jokes about blindness and affectionately impersonated by Eddie Murphy on Saturday Night Live.^{[citation needed]} Wonder sometimes joined in the jokes himself such as in The Motown Revue with Smokey Robinson. He was in a featured duet with Bruce Springsteen on the all-star charity single for African Famine Relief, "We Are the World", and he was part of another charity single the following year (1986), the AIDS-inspired "That's What Friends Are For". He also played the harmonica on the album Dreamland Express by John Denver in the song "If Ever", a song Wonder co-wrote with Stephanie Andrews. He also wrote the track "I Do Love You" for The Beach Boys' 1985 self-titled album. Stevie Wonder also played the harmonica on a track called "Can't Help Lovin' That Man" from "Showboat" on "The Broadway Album" by Barbra Streisand.

In 1986, Stevie Wonder appeared on The Cosby Show, as himself, in the episode "A Touch of Wonder".

In 1987, Wonder appeared on Michael Jackson's Bad album on the duet "Just Good Friends". Michael Jackson also sang a duet with him titled "Get It" on Wonder's 1987 album Characters. This was a minor hit single, as were "Skeletons" and "You Will Know". In the fall of 1988, Wonder duetted with Julio Iglesias on the hit single "My Love", which appeared on Iglesias' album Non Stop.^{[citation needed]}

Later career: 1991–2001[link]

Stevie Wonder at the Grammy Awards of 1990

After 1987's Characters LP, Wonder continued to release new material, but at a slower pace. He recorded a soundtrack album for Spike Lee's film Jungle Fever in 1991. From this album, singles and videos were released for "Gotta Have You" and "These Three Words". The B-side to the "Gotta Have You" single was "Feeding Off The Love Of The Land", which was played during the end credits of the movie Jungle Fever but was not included on the soundtrack. A piano and vocal version of "Feeding Off The Love Of The Land" was also released on the Nobody's Child: Romanian Angel Appeal compilation. It is rumored that "Feeding Off The Love Of The Land" was originally intended for release on Fulfillingness' First Finale Volume Two, a project that has never been confirmed as completed.

Conversation Peace and the live album Natural Wonder were also released in the 1990s. The former received its European launch at a high-profile March 1995 press conference in Paris, where Stevie mentioned how the tearing down of The Wall between East and West Berlin and the desire for a united Europe had played a significant part in the inspiration behind the album.^[31]

In 1994, Wonder made a guest appearance on the KISS cover album KISS My Ass: Classic KISS Regrooved, playing harmonica and supplying background vocals for the song "Deuce", performed by Lenny Kravitz.

In 1996, Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life was selected as a documentary subject for the Classic Albums documentary series. This series dedicates 60 minutes to one groundbreaking record per feature. The same year, he performed John Lennon's song "Imagine" in the closing ceremony of the Atlanta Olympic Games.^[32] The same year, Wonder performed in a remix of "Seasons of Love" from the Jonathan Larson musical Rent.^[33]

In 1997, Wonder collaborated with Babyface for a song about abuse (domestic violence) called "How Come, How Long" which was nominated for an award.^{[citation needed]}

In December 1999, Wonder announced that he was interested in pursuing an intraocular retinal prosthesis to partially restore his sight.^[34] That same year, Wonder was featured on harmonica in the Sting song "Brand New Day".^[35]

In 2000, Stevie Wonder contributed two new songs to the soundtrack for Spike Lee's Bamboozled album ("Misrepresented People" and "Some Years Ago").^[36]

Current career: 2002–present[link]

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In March 2002, Wonder performed at the opening ceremonies of the 2002 Winter Paralympics in Salt Lake City.^[37]

On July 2, 2005, Wonder performed in the Live 8 concert in Philadelphia.^[38]

Wonder's first new album in ten years, A Time to Love, was released on October 18, 2005, after having been pushed back from first a May, and then a June release. The album was released electronically on September 27, 2005, exclusively on Apple's iTunes Music Store. The first single, "So What the Fuss", was released in April. A second single, "From the Bottom of My Heart" was a hit on adult-contemporary R&B radio. The album also featured a duet with India.Arie on the title track "A Time to Love".

Wonder performed at the pre-game show for Super Bowl XL in Detroit in early 2006, singing various hit singles (with his four-year-old son on drums) and accompanying Aretha Franklin during "The Star Spangled Banner".

Stevie Wonder at a conference in Salvador, Brazil, in July 2006

In March 2006, Wonder received new national exposure on the top-rated American Idol television program. Wonder performed "My Love Is on Fire" (from A Time To Love) live on the show itself. In June 2006, Stevie Wonder made a guest appearance on Busta Rhymes' new album, The Big Bang on the track "Been through the Storm". He sings the refrain and plays the piano on the Dr. Dre and Sha Money XL produced track. He appeared again on the last track of Snoop Dogg's new album Tha Blue Carpet Treatment, "Conversations". The song is a remake of "Have a Talk with God" from Songs in the Key of Life.

In 2006, Wonder staged a duet with Andrea Bocelli on the latter's album Amore, offering harmonica and additional vocals on "Canzoni Stonate". Stevie Wonder also performed at Washington, D.C.'s 2006 "A Capitol Fourth" celebration.

On August 2, 2007, Stevie Wonder announced the A Wonder Summer's Night 13 concert tour—his first U.S. tour in over ten years. This tour was inspired by the recent passing of his mother, as he stated at the conclusion of the tour on December 9 at the Jobing.com Arena in Glendale, Arizona.

Wonder performs during the final day of the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado.

On August 28, 2008, Wonder performed at the Democratic National Convention at Invesco Field at Mile High in Denver, Colorado. Songs included a previously unreleased song, "Fear Can't Put Dreams to Sleep," and "Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours".^[39]

On September 8, 2008, Wonder started the European leg of his Wonder Summer's Night Tour, the first time he had toured Europe in over a decade. His opening show was at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham. During the tour, Wonder played eight UK gigs; four at The O2 Arena in London, two in Birmingham and two at the M.E.N. Arena in Manchester. Stevie Wonder's other stops in the tour's European leg also found him performing in Holland (Rotterdam), Sweden (Stockholm), Germany (Cologne, Mannheim and Munich), Norway (Hamar), France (Paris), Italy (Milan) and Denmark (Aalborg). Wonder also toured Australia (Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane) and New Zealand (Christchurch, Auckland and New Plymouth) in October and November.^[40]

By June 2008, Wonder was working on two projects simultaneously: a new album titled The Gospel Inspired By Lula which will deal with the various spiritual and cultural crises facing the world, and Through The Eyes Of Wonder, an album which Wonder has described as a performance piece that will reflect his experience as a blind man. Wonder was also keeping the door open for a collaboration with Tony Bennett and Quincy Jones concerning a rumored jazz album.^[41] If Wonder was to join forces with Bennett, it would not be for the first time; Their rendition of "For Once in My Life" earned them a Grammy for best pop collaboration with vocals in 2006.^[17] Wonder's harmonica playing can be heard on the 2009 Grammy-nominated "Never Give You Up" featuring CJ Hilton and Raphael Saadiq.^[42]

Wonder is presented the Gershwin Award for Lifetime Achievement by United States president Barack Obama.

Wonder performed on January 18, 2009 at the We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial. On Inauguration Day, January 20, 2009, Wonder performed the song "Brand New Day" with musician Sting. He performed his new song "All About the Love Again" and, with other musical artists, "Signed, Sealed & Delivered". On February 23, 2009, Wonder became the second recipient of the Library of Congress's Gershwin Prize for pop music, honored by President Barack Obama at the White House.^[43]

On July 7, 2009, Wonder performed "Never Dreamed You'd Leave In Summer" and "They Won't Go When I Go" at the Staples Center for Michael Jackson's memorial service.^[44] On October 29, 2009, Wonder performed at the 25th anniversary concert for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Among songs with B.B. King, Wonder performed Michael Jackson's 'The Way You Make Me Feel', during which he became distraught and was unable to continue until he regained his composure.

Wonder at the October 16, 2011 Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial dedication concert

On January 22, 2010, Wonder performed Bridge Over Troubled Water for the Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief event to help victims of the earthquake in Port-au-Prince on January 12, 2010.

On March 6, 2010, Wonder was awarded the Commander of the Arts and Letters by French Culture Minister Frédéric Mitterrand. Wonder had been due to receive this award in 1981, but scheduling problems prevented this from happening. A lifetime achievement award was also given to Wonder on the same day, at France's biggest music awards.^[45]

His 2010 tour included a two-hour set at the Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, Tennessee,^[46] a stop at London's "Hard Rock Calling" in Hyde Park, and appearances at England's Glastonbury Festival, Rotterdam's North Sea Jazz Festival, and a concert in Bergen, Norway and a concert in Dublin, Ireland at the O2 Arena on June 24.

In February 2011, the Apollo Theater announced that Stevie Wonder will be the next in line for the Apollo Legends Hall of Fame. The theater said that the singer will be inducted into the New York City institution's Hall of Fame in five months.^[47]

On June 25, 2011, Wonder performed at the opening ceremony of the 2011 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Athens, Greece.^[48] On January 28, 2012, Wonder and Christina Aguilera gave a musical tribute at Etta James' funeral. Wonder played "Shelter in the Rain" and The Lord's Prayer while while Aguilera sang "At Last."^[49]

Wonder performed at the February 19, 2012 memorial service for Whitney Houston at the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey. He changed some of the lyrics of his song Ribbon in the Sky in dedication to Ms. Houston.^[50]

Legacy[link]

A prominent figure in popular music during the latter half of the 20th century, Wonder has recorded more than thirty U.S. top ten hits and won twenty-two Grammy Awards^[17] (the most ever won by a solo artist) as well as a Lifetime Achievement Award. He has also won an Academy Award for Best Song,^[51] and been inducted into both the Rock and Roll^[52] and Songwriters^[53] halls of fame. He has also been awarded the Polar Music Prize.^[54] American music magazine Rolling Stone named him the ninth greatest singer of all time.^[55][56] In June 2009 he became the fourth artist to receive the Montreal Jazz Festival Spirit Award.^[57] Stevie Wonder was voted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends online Hall of Fame in 2005.^[58] His hit recording of "Superstition" was selected as a Legendary Michigan Song in 2010.^[59]

He has ten U.S. number-one hits on the pop charts as well as 20 R&B number one hits, and album sales totaling more than 100 million units. Wonder has recorded several critically acclaimed albums and hit singles, and writes and produces songs for many of his label mates and outside artists as well. Wonder plays the piano, synthesizer, harmonica, congas, drums, bass guitar, bongos, organ, melodica, and clavinet. In his childhood, he was best known for his harmonica work, but today he is better known for his keyboard skills and vocal ability. Wonder was the first Motown artist and second African American musician to win an Academy Award for Best Original Song for his 1984 hit single "I Just Called to Say I Love You" from the movie The Woman in Red.^{[citation needed]}

Classic period[link]

Wonder's "classic period" is generally agreed to consist of the concept albums^[60] he created in the early- to mid-1970s, peaking in 1976.^[61] Some observers see in 1971's Where I'm Coming From certain indications of the beginning of the classic period, such as its new funky keyboard style which Wonder used throughout the classic period.^[61] Some determine Wonder's first "classic" album to be 1972's Music of My Mind, on which he attained personal control of production, and on which he programmed a series of songs integrated with one another to make a concept album.^[61] Others skip over early 1972 and determine the beginning of the classic period to be Talking Book in late 1972,^[62] the album in which Wonder "hit his stride".^[61]

Impact[link]

Wonder's songs are renowned for being quite difficult to sing. He has a very developed sense of harmony and uses many extended chords utilizing extensions such as ninths, elevenths, thirteenths, diminished fifths, etc. in his compositions. Many of his melodies make abrupt, unpredictable changes. Many of his vocal melodies are also melismatic, meaning that a syllable is sung over several notes. Some of his best known and most frequently covered songs are played in keys which are more often found in jazz than in pop and rock. For example, "Superstition", "Higher Ground" and "I Wish" are in the key of E flat minor, and feature distinctive riffs in the E flat minor pentatonic scale (i.e. largely on the black notes of the keyboard).^{[citation needed]}

Wonder played a large role in bringing synthesizers to the forefront of popular music. He developed many new textures and sounds never heard before.^{[citation needed]} In 1981, Wonder became the first owner of an E-mu Emulator.^[63]

Songs sampled by other musicians[link]

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Wonder has recorded with Jon Gibson, a Christian Soul musician, on a remake of his own song, "Have a Talk With God" (from the 1989 album Body & Soul), covered by Gibson in which Wonder plays harmonica.^[64] The two men met in the early 1980s through a shared music agent (Bill Wolfer).^[65]

Red Hot Chili Peppers covered "Higher Ground" in 1989 on their Mother's Milk album. Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble covered "Superstition" and Wonder made a cameo appearance in the official music video for the song.^{[citation needed]}

De La Soul sampled "Hey Love" in their song "Talkin' Bout Hey Love" on their 1991 album De La Soul Is Dead.

"Don't You Worry 'bout a Thing" was rendered by English band Incognito in 1992 and John Legend covered this song for the 2005 film, Hitch. George Michael and Mary J. Blige covered "As" in the late 1990s. In 1999, Salomé de Bahia made a Brazilian version of "Another Star". Tupac Shakur sampled "That Girl" for his hit song "So Many Tears".^{[citation needed]}

"Pastime Paradise" would become an interpolation for Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise" while Will Smith would use "I Wish" as the basis for the theme song to his movie, Wild Wild West. The elements of "Love's In Need of Love Today" were used by 50 Cent in the song "Ryder Music", and Warren G sampled "Village Ghetto Land" for his song "Ghetto Village".^{[citation needed]}

Mary Mary did a cover of his song "You Will Know" on their 2002 album, Incredible. Australian soul artist Guy Sebastian recorded a cover of "I Wish" on his Beautiful Life album. In 2003, Raven-Symoné recorded a cover of "Superstition" for the soundtrack to Disney's The Haunted Mansion. In 2005, Canadian singer Dave Moffatt, from the group The Moffatts, sang the song "Overjoyed" from the In Square Circle album on Canadian Idol. Clay Aiken performed "Isn't She Lovely?" in the episode "My Life in Four Cameras" of Scrubs.^{[citation needed]}

Personal life[link]

Wonder has been married twice: to Motown singer Syreeta Wright from 1970 until their divorce in 1972; and since 2001, to fashion designer Kai Millard Morris.^[66] He has seven children from his two marriages and several relationships.^[66]

Stevie met Yolanda Simmons when she applied for a job as his secretary for his publishing company.^[67] Simmons bore Wonder a daughter on February 2, 1975: Aisha Morris.^[68][69]) According to Stevie, the name Aisha is "African for strength and intelligence".^[67] After she was born, Stevie said "she was the one thing that I needed in my life and in my music for a long time.^[67] It was this in mind, she was the inspiration for his hit single "Isn't She Lovely." Aisha Morris is a singer who has toured with her father and accompanied him on recordings, including his 2005 album, A Time 2 Love. Wonder has two sons with Kai Millard Morris; the older is named Kailand and he occasionally performs as a drummer on stage with his father. The younger son, Mandla Kadjay Carl Stevland Morris, was born May 13, 2005, his father's 55th birthday.^[66] In May 2006, Wonder's mother died in Los Angeles, at the age of 76. During his September 8, 2008 UK concert in Birmingham, he spoke of his decision to begin touring again following his loss. "I want to take all the pain that I feel and celebrate and turn it around."^[70]

Wonder's Taxi Productions owns Los Angeles radio station KJLH.

Charting discography[link]

Top 40 singles[link]

U.S. and UK albums[link]