The last two braille characters in the table Dots 56 and Dot 6 are special prefixes. A special prefix may be used in combination with another special prefix to form a braille sign. Such braille signs are used only as indicators.

Any other braille sign in UEB is constructed from a root or from a root plus one or more prefixes.

When scansion, stress and tone are shown with the International Phonetic Alphabet, use the most recent edition of IPA Braille: An Updated Tactile Representation of the International Phonetic Alphabet.

Other forms of English braille write the wordsigns for "a", "and", "for", "of", "the" and "with" unspaced from one another.

The purpose of code switching is to indicate text which is transcribed in a braille code other than UEB. This may include:6 

• braille codes for languages other than English, such as Afrikaans, French, German, Spanish, Vietnamese 

• IPA Braille: An Updated Tactile Representation of the International Phonetic Alphabet [see 14.4] 

• New International Manual of Braille Music Notation [see 14.5]

• The Nemeth Braille Code for Mathematics and Science Notation [see 14.6] 

• other non-UEB braille codes for subjects such as mathematics, chemistry, computer science (assuming the transcriber has a special reason for switching, which in general is not necessary in UEB) 

• historical braille codes 

• proposed braille codes

Other forms of English braille use the following contractions which are not used in UEB:

o'clock (shortform)

dd (groupsign between letters)

to (wordsign unspaced from following word)

into (wordsign unspaced from following word)

by (wordsign unspaced from following word)

ble (groupsign following other letters)

com (groupsign at beginning of word)

ation (groupsign following other letters)

ally (groupsign following other letters)

When a text is to be read in hardcopy braille, do not use code switching indicators when the nature and extent of the non-UEB text can be determined by the context or format.

Other forms of English braille use the following punctuation signs which are not used in UEB:

opening and closing parentheses (round brackets)

closing square bracket

closing single quotation mark (inverted commas)

ellipsis

dash (short dash)

double dash (long dash)

opening square bracket

In situations where code switching indicators are not used, ensure that the format or position of the non-UEB material is clear to the reader. Often the text itself will make it obvious, for example: when the introduction of a bilingual dictionary explains that the entry word in French is followed by its pronunciation in IPA; when the text has two columns headed "Spanish" and "English"; or when the text states that the words in German are in bold. If the text does not explicitly draw attention to the non-UEB material, use a transcriber's note to explain the format or position of non-UEB braille codes.

Use code switching indicators for non-UEB material when writing braille that will be translated into print or where context and format cues are not obvious or meaningful, for example when a file will be read electronically.