Paths to Literacy

for students who are blind or visually impaired

How to Braille Playing Cards

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Braille on Ace of Spades
  1. Get a deck of playing cards
  2. Each card uses two cells.  There are no numeric or grade 1 indicators used.
  3. Put the card in your slate and stylus or brailler and braille the top left corner. Take it out and flip it around and reinsert and braille the top left corner. In both cases braille on the “picture” side of the card. This way, no matter which way the user holds the card, the braille will be legible in the top left corner.
  4. Use these letters for the suits:
    • c = ♣ clubs
    • h = ♥ hearts
    • d = ♦ diamonds
    • s = ♠ spades
  5. Use these numbers / letters for each card:
    • 1 = ace
    • x = 10
    • j = jack
    • q = queen
    • k = king
    • The numbers 2 through 9 represent the numbered cards.
  6. In brailling the cards below, you would use the following:

Examples of braille playing cards (Ace of Clubs, 7 of diamonds, King of Spades)

This is a great activity for someone learning to use a slate and stylus! It’s functional, and then you can play a game!

How to braille playing cards (in braille)
 
How to braille playing cards

Collage of how to braille playing cards

This article was originally posted on the BrailleSC website, which was funded by a grant from the US Department of Education with support from the University of South Carolina Upstate and The Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities.

Comments

brailling cards

Posted by kayongo muhamed

Great idea!

Posted by Hillary Kleck

Hi Hillary,

Posted by Sumer

UNO Card Abbreviations

Posted by Sensory Sun

Thank you for the fun post!!!

Posted by Christopher Tabb

Practical and thanks Penny!!!

Posted by Aussie Deb Lewis

Using Playing Cards Post in Newsletter

Posted by Charlotte Cushman

Thank you for the post! It

Posted by Sumer

Read more about: Games, Braille
Posted on July 16, 2017
Updated on: June 4, 2019

Previous comments for How to Braille Playing Cards

Sensory Sun commented on February 11, 2018

Sure! For the traditional UNO card game, we used these abbreviations:

 

red = r

yellow = y

blue = b

green = g

For example, a "Red 2" card would be:  r 2  (with the braille number sign before the 2, of course)

Wild = wild [we just spelled out the word]

Draw 4 = +4

Draw 2 = (color) +2

For example, a "Yellow Draw 2" card would be: y +2

Reverse = (color) rev

For example, a "Blue Reverse" card would be:  b rev

 

We brailled both top and bottom of the cards so that regardless of which way you have UP, the braille will read correctly at the top of the card just as the print does. 

If you want a really fun game for UNO, try UNO Roboto that includes a fun little robot card holder guy who talks! Our family has really loved it, including my daughter who is blind, and we can all play using these cards! Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any questions!

Sumer commented on February 7, 2018

Hi Hillary,
Would you mind sharing the abbreviations for Uno? I assume they are 2 cell abbreviations. Thanks in advance!

Sumer commented on February 7, 2018

Thank you for the post! It provided a quick guide to brailling a deck of cards for a student.

Charlotte Cushman commented on August 16, 2017

Hi Aussie Deb Lewis,

Yes, it's fine to include this in your upcoming newsletter.  Please acknowledge Penny Rosenblum as the author and include the link to Paths to Literacy as the source in your reprint.

Thank you for asking!

Aussie Deb Lewis commented on August 16, 2017

Practical and thanks Penny!!!
[Do you mind if I include it in an upcoming issue of our newsletter?]

Christopher Tabb commented on July 18, 2017

Lots of ways to incorporate playing cards into the ECC. Thank you for the terrific and fun post!
: )

Hillary Kleck commented on July 16, 2017

This is a great way to braille playing cards. I wanted to mention that by brailling corners on both top and bottom of the cards, it also makes a huge difference in how the cards stack. When we only brailled one side, they tend to slide off each other in the pile.

We also did this for UNO cards, and used similar abbreviations for the special cards in the deck. Madilyn loves playing UNO Roboto that makes sounds and has other fun game play!!

kayongo muhamed commented on July 15, 2017

Hi,
Thank you for this post. it has showed me how to braille cards.
Keep it up.
Regards,
Kayongo

See All Previous Comments

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