Romania to use the Scripor alphabet intended for the visually impaired, a system invented by a Romanian painter

Education Ministry has announced that Romania will be the first country in the world to implement the Scripor Alphabet, a tactile coding system that allows visually impaired people to read, write, understand, remember and recognize colors, efficiently.

The alphabet is named after its inventor, a painter from Cluj-Napoca, Tudor Scripor.

Also known as the Alphabet of Colors, the coding system is practically an extension of the Braille alphabet, most commonly used by the blind people. The difference is that, through Scripor, people who lost their sight during their lifetime can associate geometrical forms with colors. Practically, the geometrical shapes are associated to the three basic colors: red, yellow and blue. By combing them, other three secondary colors are born: orange, brown and purple, to which grey, black and white are added.

The Scripor alphabet consists of 10 tactile graphic elements and can be learnt by anyone, being useful mainly to the visually impaired, but also to those who have intellectual difficulties.

The symbols of the colors can be easily recognized in any position, as the Scripor uses both bi-dimensional geometrical shapes, but also a simple system of points, so that users can have two ways of learning information by touching these shapes.

The information gained through the Scripor alphabet can help blind people get more knowledge of medicine, education, in the fashion industry, visual arts, architecture, tourism, public transportation and even in the new IT technology (software, hardware, applications and devices).

The inventor, Tudor Scripor was awarded at the International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva in May 2019 for the category of Education, Culture and Art and he also received the Special Prize of the Inventors Association in Germany.

Inventor Tudor Scripor recounted that he had come up with this alphabet idea in 2012, out of necessity, to help one of his students who attended his painting workshops.

“A visually impaired came to one of my painting workshops and I found it very hard to communicate with him in the colors language. Until now, all that was represented for the visually impaired is in 3D or in pop-up”, the painter said.

The Romanian Education Ministry says that a collaboration protocol with the Scripor Alphabet Association will be signed next week, to implement the system countrywide and thus Romania will officially become the first country in the world to use the Scripor Alphabet.