COLUMN
Kosuke TAKAHASHI
Inventor
Photographs by Go ITAMI │ Interview & Text by Yosuke TSUJI
- “Why Can’t We Read Braille?”:
- Braille Neue as the Bridge Between the Sighted and the Visually-Impaired
“Nobody knows who invented the fork. But they’re all pretty much that shape, right? Meaning, we all subconsciously share the same concept of a ‘fork,’ as it was invented by some random person. These kinds of concepts, the kind that are maintained over the generations and become part of the future consciousness—I think it’d be beautiful to invent something like that… I mean, I guess I am an inventor [laughs].”
So says the young inventor, smiling sheepishly. Kosuke Takahashi, 26 years old. Normally he is a regular company employee, working as a designer/planner in an ad agency. So when he refers to himself as an inventor, he means it less as a job, and more as a life. But what, then, has Kosuke Takahashi invented? The answer is a new typeface, called Braille Neue.
“I want to make a form of braille that sighted people can read.” A sudden idea, borne of an accidental encounter. And in 2018, Takahashi came out with Braille Neue, a new typeface that combines braille with traditional writing. After its announcement, Braille Neue was quickly picked up by the media as a new braille system that would allow both sighted and visually-impaired people to read the same typeface. The attention made sense, considering braille had never once been updated over the past 100 years. Perhaps the idea itself was trivial. But this trivial idea had grown into an invention that would straddle a century. Braille Neue is currently being implemented—slowly but surely—in real life, starting with the Shibuya City Office in Tokyo.
“It’s different from what you’d call barrier-free design,” says Takahashi. Another thing he says is, “Braille is an update on traditional writing.” Indeed, Braille Neue is a glimpse of our future—a tool not just for the visually-impaired, but for all of us.
People with Impairment as “People Who Can Do Something I Can’t”:
Working from the Opposite Perspective as Universal Design
Working from the Opposite Perspective as Universal Design
I came up with Braille Neue because I couldn’t read braille. Nowadays I’ve been studying it, so I can read it somewhat, but it’s still difficult. Although, the more I learn about it, the more I’ve realized how interesting braille is as a writing system. Think about it—you read with your fingers. How does that even work?
The general consensus is that not being able to see is a form of impairment, and not being able to read writing is this very inconvenient thing. I won’t deny, of course, that some of this is true. But it isn’t that simple. For example, I think you can argue that braille is actually an updated version of traditional writing.
I came to this realization because of an experience I had. I normally work for an ad agency and through that work, I randomly had the opportunity to go to a facility for people with visual impairments. There, I saw visually-impaired people reading braille for the first time in my life, and was told something that I remember to this day.
“You know, if you learned how to read braille, you could also read books when it’s pitch dark.”
I thought, Wow, that’s true.
The general consensus is that not being able to see is a form of impairment, and not being able to read writing is this very inconvenient thing. I won’t deny, of course, that some of this is true. But it isn’t that simple. For example, I think you can argue that braille is actually an updated version of traditional writing.
I came to this realization because of an experience I had. I normally work for an ad agency and through that work, I randomly had the opportunity to go to a facility for people with visual impairments. There, I saw visually-impaired people reading braille for the first time in my life, and was told something that I remember to this day.
“You know, if you learned how to read braille, you could also read books when it’s pitch dark.”
I thought, Wow, that’s true.
Sighted people can only read when there’s enough lighting, but people who can’t see light at all can read regardless of light. Until then, I’d thought of people with impairment as people who couldn’t do something or the other. But with that one remark, I came to realize that they were in fact people who could do things that I couldn’t do.
Afterwards, I spent a lot of time doing research on braille. I wanted to be able to read it, so I started studying it. But… in the beginning, I just felt like it was too different, too disconnected from how I experienced the world. In other words, it felt kind of inaccessible. If learning braille was like climbing a set of stairs, the first step was insanely steep. So I asked myself whether there was a way to create another, lower step before this first step. I thought, in the same way that I came across braille and became interested in it, couldn’t I make something, like a kind of gateway, to get more people interested in the world of braille?
That’s how I started working on Braille Neue. And in that sense, the idea for Braille Neue came from a very different place from what you’d call universal design. Normally, when you talk about universal design, it’s all about how you can adapt the design of things that sighted people use for people who are visually impaired. With Braille Neue, it’s the exact opposite. The design is all about how we can take something that hasn’t been available to sighted people, and allow them to experience it too. It all started with the question, “Why can’t we read braille?”
Afterwards, I spent a lot of time doing research on braille. I wanted to be able to read it, so I started studying it. But… in the beginning, I just felt like it was too different, too disconnected from how I experienced the world. In other words, it felt kind of inaccessible. If learning braille was like climbing a set of stairs, the first step was insanely steep. So I asked myself whether there was a way to create another, lower step before this first step. I thought, in the same way that I came across braille and became interested in it, couldn’t I make something, like a kind of gateway, to get more people interested in the world of braille?
That’s how I started working on Braille Neue. And in that sense, the idea for Braille Neue came from a very different place from what you’d call universal design. Normally, when you talk about universal design, it’s all about how you can adapt the design of things that sighted people use for people who are visually impaired. With Braille Neue, it’s the exact opposite. The design is all about how we can take something that hasn’t been available to sighted people, and allow them to experience it too. It all started with the question, “Why can’t we read braille?”
Creating Communication,
Regardless of Impairment
Regardless of Impairment
In terms of the actual typeface, I had people with visual impairments actually touch the characters, and created it through a lot of trial and error. Design rules when it comes to braille are extremely strict, and there were times in the beginning where I’d do research and try making some characters only to have them tell me, “This is almost unreadable.” I listened to their advice, then ｄ, and eventually got it to be what it is now.
But even when it was complete, I didn’t know for sure whether it had enough value for me to try to promote it out in the world. I’d jumped headfirst into this idea of combining braille with traditional writing, but I didn’t really know what it would actually do. The turning point for that came with an event called the “No Look Tour,” which was held at the Kobe Eye Center.
The “No Look Tour” is a social event for both sighted and visually-impaired people. I made the logo for it with Braille Neue, and also made it so that participants could hang the logo around their necks as proof of entry. And lo and behold, all of a sudden the sighted and visually-impaired people were talking to each other, using the logo—and how to read it—as a sort of icebreaker for conversation.
But even when it was complete, I didn’t know for sure whether it had enough value for me to try to promote it out in the world. I’d jumped headfirst into this idea of combining braille with traditional writing, but I didn’t really know what it would actually do. The turning point for that came with an event called the “No Look Tour,” which was held at the Kobe Eye Center.
The “No Look Tour” is a social event for both sighted and visually-impaired people. I made the logo for it with Braille Neue, and also made it so that participants could hang the logo around their necks as proof of entry. And lo and behold, all of a sudden the sighted and visually-impaired people were talking to each other, using the logo—and how to read it—as a sort of icebreaker for conversation.
As I saw this happening, I felt like maybe the wall that had divided the sighted from the visually-impaired had been this—the tools we’d used, the differences between our writing systems. In other words, just by combining braille with traditional writing—establishing common rules in an area where they previously hadn’t existed—we could create a space without the walls that used to divide us.
I would say sports do the same thing as well. If you’re all playing soccer under the same rules, it doesn’t matter what ethnicity you are, the color of your skin, your economic status. It makes it so that people who may previously have never come into contact with each other, are able to communicate naturally with one another. This realization is what drove my decision to promote Braille Neue for real—why I joined 100BANCH, and started working on this project with the Shibuya City Office.
The idea of communication, which I just touched on, became a major theme of my later efforts as well. For example, I recently invented a game called “Linkage,” which you play with your fingers. It’s sort of like a Twister that you play with your fingers, and it’s based on the idea of “tactile signing,” which is used by people who are deaf-blind. It’s a game that’s mostly played using your sense of touch, and in that way, allows players to very easily bypass any language barriers. Tactile communication actually conveys a very large amount of information—more, I think, than words alone can convey. A lot of people may be a little resistant to the idea of touching people that aren’t their family or significant other, but it’s surprisingly easy to do when it’s in the context of a game.
Recently, you see a lot of text-based miscommunication on social media. Words don’t tell the full story, and they tend not to get across everything you want to say. I think these areas of misunderstanding could be supplemented by the other senses, like for example, touch. When we put our thoughts down in words and sentences, we obey the rules of logic. But I think deep down, human beings operate more on intuition.
I would say sports do the same thing as well. If you’re all playing soccer under the same rules, it doesn’t matter what ethnicity you are, the color of your skin, your economic status. It makes it so that people who may previously have never come into contact with each other, are able to communicate naturally with one another. This realization is what drove my decision to promote Braille Neue for real—why I joined 100BANCH, and started working on this project with the Shibuya City Office.
The idea of communication, which I just touched on, became a major theme of my later efforts as well. For example, I recently invented a game called “Linkage,” which you play with your fingers. It’s sort of like a Twister that you play with your fingers, and it’s based on the idea of “tactile signing,” which is used by people who are deaf-blind. It’s a game that’s mostly played using your sense of touch, and in that way, allows players to very easily bypass any language barriers. Tactile communication actually conveys a very large amount of information—more, I think, than words alone can convey. A lot of people may be a little resistant to the idea of touching people that aren’t their family or significant other, but it’s surprisingly easy to do when it’s in the context of a game.
Recently, you see a lot of text-based miscommunication on social media. Words don’t tell the full story, and they tend not to get across everything you want to say. I think these areas of misunderstanding could be supplemented by the other senses, like for example, touch. When we put our thoughts down in words and sentences, we obey the rules of logic. But I think deep down, human beings operate more on intuition.
Inventions That Are Fun, Above All:
Braille Neue Inspires More Ideas
Braille Neue Inspires More Ideas
Recently, I’ve been studying sign language in addition to braille. We’re working on this project at 100BANCH called the “Mirai Gengo,” where we discuss the idea of a shared world language, and we do our meetings for it in things like sign language and body language.
I don’t speak English, so I always feel frustrated when I go abroad. It’s the same when I’m faced with someone who can’t hear—I mean, we can communicate through chat, but since you can only convey so much through words, our conversations don’t ever get that exciting. But if you start using sign language in the meetings, they get so much more exciting, so much more lively. Part of that is that it makes everyone use more body language to communicate, which ups everyone’s mood in general. It’s really fun.
I just think that this sense of “having fun” is very important. There’s a reason why communication methods like sign language and braille have been in use for so long. It’s not just that it’s convenient for getting your thoughts across. I think more than that, it’s about how fun it is to use, how nice it feels to touch—these kinds of sensory elements. So in projects like this, where we want to create a new language, or actually go out and test it, I always make sure I’m considering how fun the end result will be.
I don’t speak English, so I always feel frustrated when I go abroad. It’s the same when I’m faced with someone who can’t hear—I mean, we can communicate through chat, but since you can only convey so much through words, our conversations don’t ever get that exciting. But if you start using sign language in the meetings, they get so much more exciting, so much more lively. Part of that is that it makes everyone use more body language to communicate, which ups everyone’s mood in general. It’s really fun.
I just think that this sense of “having fun” is very important. There’s a reason why communication methods like sign language and braille have been in use for so long. It’s not just that it’s convenient for getting your thoughts across. I think more than that, it’s about how fun it is to use, how nice it feels to touch—these kinds of sensory elements. So in projects like this, where we want to create a new language, or actually go out and test it, I always make sure I’m considering how fun the end result will be.
When I was creating the Braille Neue typeface, for example, I put a lot of emphasis on how it looked. It had to be something that was nice to look at, that affected people on more than a superficial level, or it wouldn’t be accepted, wouldn’t remain in the public consciousness. I think it’s the same with the rhythm of words, like maybe part of the reason why people still like and adhere to the five-seven-five rule in haiku is because talking in that rhythm sounds nice, feels nice. In hip-hop, for example, which I love, I think there’s more of a focus on whether the words feel good in that particular place in the song, than on the actual rhyming or the content of the lyrics [laughs].
What I want to do is keep creating content that people can enjoy with their senses. For example, I want to try making a picture book using Braille Neue, that people can read through touch—a book that children who can see and children who can’t see can read together. We’re still in the brainstorming stage, but maybe we could make it a riddle-solving picture book, and design it so that sighted and visually-impaired children can work together to solve riddles, for the first time ever. I love these kinds of games, this kind of play. If we could use Braille Neue to bring sighted and visually-impaired people together, create a world where we can all share in something and play games with each other, that would be absolutely incredible.
What I want to do is keep creating content that people can enjoy with their senses. For example, I want to try making a picture book using Braille Neue, that people can read through touch—a book that children who can see and children who can’t see can read together. We’re still in the brainstorming stage, but maybe we could make it a riddle-solving picture book, and design it so that sighted and visually-impaired children can work together to solve riddles, for the first time ever. I love these kinds of games, this kind of play. If we could use Braille Neue to bring sighted and visually-impaired people together, create a world where we can all share in something and play games with each other, that would be absolutely incredible.
Kosuke TAKAHASHI | Inventor
Born in 1993 in Tokyo. Graduated from Keio University in 2016. Works as a planner at an ad agency, proposing development ideas for new products, while also working as an inventor who specializes in graphic design and product design. Developed Braille Neue, a typeface that combines braille with traditional writing, as a personal project in 2017.
