Braille nails are exactly what they sound like. Raised gel dots on your fingertips that spell out words you can see and feel at the same time. You’re walking around with literacy on your hands, and people notice. They stop you. They ask what the dots mean. And suddenly you’re showing strangers how six dots in different arrangements create every letter they’ve been reading their entire lives.

Sharon Kanhai-Johnston got her dog’s name spelled out in Braille during the 10 Spot campaign for Braille Literacy Month. People could see the pattern and feel the raised dots, which is the entire point. Braille works because of touch, but making it visible meant sighted people could learn the system while blind people demonstrated how they actually use it. The six dots shift position to represent letters, numbers, and punctuation. It’s a code, not a language. And when people could trace the dots with their fingers while seeing which letter each pattern made, the learning clicked faster than any explanation alone could manage.

The campaign made Braille fun, which matters because literacy shouldn’t feel clinical or educational in the heavy-handed way. It’s reading. It’s writing. It’s texting your friend. Making that accessible means making it interesting enough that people want to learn it.

Topics: Braille nails, Braille literacy, tactile communication, learning Braille, accessible literacy awareness

GUEST: Sharon Kanhai-Johnston | http://cnib.ca/braille , @‌cnibfoundation

Originally aired on2026-02-17