Braille is a great way for blind people to read and write. Devised by blind French schoolboy Louis Braille over 200 years ago, it is just the alphabet and numbers, designed to be read by fingers rather than eyes. 

Barnsley Council’s Adult and Family Learning service holds a regular Braille class on Tuesday evenings, and for three weeks, starting from February 21, the class will be open as a free ‘taster’ to anyone who would like to go along and find out more.

This might be of particular interest to someone who works in a caring profession, wants to help a friend or relative with visual impairment, or may be having problems with their own sight.

The class is run as a workshop, so anyone interested can go along and find out what lies behind this skill as well as learning in a practical way how to use a Perkins Brailler (the machine which produces the Braille script) and how to read some basic Braille notation.

The free taster classes will be held on Tuesday evenings (from 5.45pm to 7.45pm) on February 21 & 28, and March 6, at the Age Concern on Queen’s Road in Barnsley.

Any further information, or to reserve a place, please contact Keith Brock on 01226 775290, or by email to  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.