William Moon

Moon text was invented in 1845 by Dr. William Moon and is now overseen by the Royal National Institute for the Blind. Whereas Braille uses dot patterns unrelated to a visual alphabet, Moon is composed of curved lines and is partly derived from the Roman alphabet

When only four years old he had lost the sight of one eye, as the result of scarlet fever, and even in his boyhood he could read ordinary print only when the colours of the type were sufficiently contrasted with that of the paper to make the effect clear and distinct ; and therefore, to aid his sight, he used to write on a slate with chalk. In mental arithmetic he quite excelled. Owing to his defective sight he accepted help from his fellow-pupils in the preparation of the daily lessons; they kindly aided him by reading these to him, and he then wrote the lessons on a series of slates, and could thus commit them to memory.

After leaving school he continued his studies with a view to qualify himself for the ministry of the gospel. During this period of his life he underwent several surgical operations on his eyes; but notwithstanding all that could be done by the most skilful treatment, his sight gradually failed, until in 1840 he became totally blind: this happened when he was twenty-one years of age.

The Inventor

Losing no time in vain regrets over the calamity which had befallen him, William Moon gave his attention to mastering the various systems of reading for the blind which were in use at that time. . It was during the latter months of 1838, or in the beginning of 1839, that he acquired the art of reading those types. He had not then wholly lost his sight, but it was failing very rapidly. When he became quite blind in 1840, he purchased a few books in embossed type; and as he had nothing to occupy his time, he at once began to seek for and teach other blind persons at their homes. After a while he succeeded in forming a class of blind pupils of various ages. This class subsequently developed into the Asylum for the Blind in Eastern Road, Brighton.

With much perseverance and with more or less success, he endeavoured to instruct his pupils in one or other of the systems then in use. But he found that many of his scholars were quite unequal to the task of committing to memory a long series of contractions, or of deciphering a type in which the ordinary forms of the Roman alphabet were employed. It is believed that owing to these causes comparatively few blind persons advanced in years or accustomed to manual labour were at that time able to read by the touch. Reflecting on such facts as these, the desire arose in his mind to devise some easier method; and after earnest consideration and ingenious contriving he constructed a new system, which has now stood the test of fifty years and is known throughout the world as “Moon’s” system for teaching the blind to read.

The alphabet constructed by him consists of letters of very simple form combined with a full orthography. Most of the characters are either the unaltered or slightly modified forms of the Roman letters. Where some of the more complex letters of the Roman alphabet could not be changed or adapted with advantage, new characters were substituted for them. When completed Dr. Moon’s alphabet was found to consist of only nine characters placed in various positions. A glance at it will show that it is composed of the very simplest geometrical forms, such as the straight line, the acute and the right angle, the circle and the semicircle. The simplicity of construction of Dr. Moon’s alphabet is further shown from the fact that five of the forms used in it, each of them turned four different ways, make twenty letters out of the twenty- six.

The alphabet consists of eight of the Roman letters unaltered, fourteen others with parts left out, and five new and very simple forms which may be easily learned by the aged and by persons whose fingers are hardened by work. The more the type was tried the more was the young inventor encouraged by its success and by its adaptability to the needs of the blind. It soon became evident that his future life was destined to be devoted to their welfare, and in particular to the preparation of a literature for their use.

Half a century afterwards and but a short time before his death he could thankfully remark to a visitor who had called on him in Brighton, “It has been for me a long night, but a bright day. God has been pleased to give me the talent of blindness, and I have tried to do my best to use it. ”

Braille is optimized for speed of reading by experienced users whereas Moon is optimized for speed of learning by new users familiar with the printed alphabet. Moon also has a lower requirement on the tactile acuity of the reader’s finger tips. These two features make Moon a useful optional alternative to Braille for those who have been blinded by aging related causes. As old age is now the predominate cause of blindness in the developed world, a script like Moon would be potentially very useful. Unfortunately computer output of Moon has lagged far behind that of Braille and so Moon users have not benefited from the flexibility and reduced distribution costs that live computer output has given Braille users. This is partly because of the larger pre-existing customer base for Braille products but also because building a mechanism that changes it shape to form the curves of Moon is much more difficulty than one which simply raises the dots of Braille characters. However, these difficulties are reversed for force-feedback display.

Moon Script

Still used in Britain for people with learning or fine motor difficulties, and those who have lost their sight later in life, Moon type is believed by its supporters to be easier to learn and more tactually simple to discriminate than Braille. Although almost unknown in the U.S., books in Moon are available from the Royal National Institute for the Blind and are available in Canada and Australia as well as Great Britain. Moon can be generated with computer software today. Duxbury, readily available in the U.S. has an English Moon translator available in their “translation tables” menu. Files can be embossed in a “dotty Moon” style with an Enabling Technologies embosser with a Moon setting. Some Moon fonts can be found on the Internet for use with a computer. Moon books are still produced through a modified typesetting process. Reading materials are now also generated with Moon Writers, thermoform machines, computer Moon fonts printed on swell paper, and Moon translation software and embossers. Moon can also be handwritten with a stylus on plastic sheets with a frame guide in a manner similar to using a slate and stylus to produce Braille. A Moon teaching curriculum is available from Royal National Institute for the Blind in Great Britain

Contemporary Opinion

In 1887, during his second trip to England, Campbell studied various tactile writing systems for the blind people in Europe. During this period, he became acquainted with the Moon type, which was widely used. In the latter half of the nineteenth century, there were approximately 30,000 visually impaired individuals in Great Britain, 90% of whom were older than 21 years. As people age, their finger sensitivity tends to decrease, which can be exacerbated by heavy manual labour. To address this concern, William Moon, the inventor of the Moon type, designed a simplified typeface that utilised geometric patterns specifically for individuals who had difficulty recognizing dot-type systems or Roman letters.9 A survey conducted in 1880 revealed that nearly half of the blind individuals in Glasgow who were able to read utilised the Moon type.

The Moon script is read from left to right in the first line, from right to left in the next line, and again from left to right in the following lines. This boustrophedon-like system makes it easier for readers to follow without having to lift their fingers and potentially lose their place. However, arranging letters in reverse order when changing lines was a problem, because it could make reading more difficult and reduce the willingness of the sighted to help blind people read.

Regarding Braille’s popularity in Europe, Campbell believed that while Braille was useful for writing and learning music, most blind people did not want to become writers or musicians. Learning Braille could be “surprising, but ultimately impractical” for blind people who did not want to work in places like churches or schools for the blind people.

Louis Braille (1809–1852), a blind student at the Institution des Jeunes Aveugles in Paris, invented Braille using a system of six dots arranged in two vertical rows of three each. This arrangement proved to be more practical for the writing needs of blind individuals, allowing them to write independently using a stylus and writing board. Braille quickly gained popularity because of its simplicity and efficiency in tactile reading and writing. Despite its widespread use, however, Braille has certain limitations. In response, William B. Wait (1839–1916), the sighted principal of the New York School for the Blind, introduced an alternative system called New York Point3 which competed with American Braille in the United States. Both line- and dot-type tactile reading systems are generally well suited for phonetic languages, where a limited set of written symbols correspond to specific sounds or phonetic units.