ELIA LIFE TECHNOLOGIES

All of the letters in the ELIA® Alphabet have either a circular or square outside frame. These two frame shapes are easy to envision, and when they are tactile shapes they are easy for most people to identify. The ELIA® Alphabet's letters are divided into four groups, two groups with circular frames and two with square frames. Below are descriptions for each of the letters of the ELIA® Alphabet, broken down by group.

Group One

The first group of letters with circular frames is A through D. Each of these letters has a frame with an opening somewhere in it. This is a distinguishing characteristic of letters A through D.

A: A has a circular frame with an opening in the bottom portion of its frame. It is the only ELIA letter with an opening in the bottom of the frame. In the interior of the frame it has a peaked symbol similar to a Roman capital letter A, or an upside down V.

B: B has a circular frame with an opening in the right portion of its frame. There are two horizontal lines across its interior, making it look similar to a baseball.

C: C is a circular letter with an opening in the right portion of its frame, like the Roman letter C. It is similar to the letter B; however, it does not have the two internal horizontal lines.

D: D has a circular frame with an opening in the left portion of its frame and a vertical line extending from the top of the frame to the bottom. One can trace the Roman capital letter D in this symbol by using the vertical line and the right portion of the circular frame. It is the only ELIA letter with an opening in the left portion of the frame.

Group Two

The second group of letters, E through N, have square frames. They are the first group of letters with square frames. The letters T though Z also have square frames.

E: E has a square frame with an interior horizontal line extending from the middle of the left side of its frame to the middle of the right side of its frame. One can trace the Roman capital letter E in this symbol by incorporating the top, left and bottom sides of the frame along with the inside horizontal line.

F: F is similar to E in that it has a square frame with a horizontal line in its interior; however, the interior line in the F is in the top half of its frame, instead of in the middle of the frame as it is in the letter E. This is similar to the Roman capital letter F, which has the majority of its mass in the upper portion of the letter, while the capital E has its mass evenly spaced between the top and bottom. One can trace the Roman capital letter F in this symbol by incorporating the top and left sides of the frame along with the inside horizontal line.

G: G has a square frame and a small barb, or tail, inside the middle of the right side of its frame. One can trace the Roman capital letter G in this symbol by finding the barb, tracing down the right side of the frame, across the bottom of the frame, up the left side of the frame, and across the top of the frame from the left corner to the right.

H: H is very similar to the E and F in that it has a square frame with a horizontal line in its interior; however, the interior line in the H is in the bottom half of its frame, instead of the middle of its frame as it is in the letter E, or the top half of its frame as it is in the letter F. This is similar to the Roman lowercase h, which has the majority of its mass in the lower portion of the letter.

I: I has a square frame with a dot in the middle of it, similar to the Roman lowercase i, which has a dot as the top part of the letter.

J: J has a square frame and has a small barb, or tail, on the lower left portion of the inside of its frame. One can trace the Roman capital letter J in this symbol by finding the barb, tracing down the left side of the frame, across the bottom of the frame, up the right side of the frame, and across the top of the frame from the right corner to the left. The letter J is almost the mirror image of the letter G.

K: K has a square frame and has two legs inside, like a sideways V, extending from the middle of the left side of its frame to the middle of the top and bottom sides of its frame. One can trace the Roman capital letter K using the left side of the frame and the two interior lines.

L: L has a square frame that is empty. One can trace the Roman capital letter L using the left and the bottom horizontal sides of the frame.

M: M has a square frame and has a small barb, or tail, inside the middle of the top side of its frame. One can trace the Roman capital letter M in this symbol by tracing from the bottom left corner of the frame to the top, across to the barb, down and up the barb, across to the right corner, and down the right side of the frame to the bottom. The letter M is similar to the letters G and J; they each have a barb on the inside of the frame.

N: N has a square frame with a diagonal line extending from the upper left corner of its frame to the bottom right corner of its frame. One can trace the Roman capital letter N in this symbol by incorporating the left and right sides of the frame with the inside diagonal line.

Group Three

The second group of letters with circular frames is O through S. All of these letters have a closed circular frame.

O: O is a circular letter and is the same as a Roman capital letter O.

P: P has a circular frame and a horizontal line across its middle (versus the letter B which has two lines and an opening in the right side of its frame.)

Q: Q is a circular letter with a barb, or tail, in the lower right portion of its circular frame, much like a Roman capital letter Q.

R: R has a circular frame. Its major feature is taken from the bottom part of the Roman capital letter R, and is a diagonal line extending from the upper left portion to the lower right portion of its frame. It also has a small dot in the upper right portion of its interior.

S: S has circular frame with a dot in the middle of it. S is similar to I in its interior, but S has a circular frame and I has a square frame.

Group Four

The second group of letters with square frames is T though Z. In all of these symbols, except for the Y, you can trace the Roman capital letter somewhere in the symbol.

T: T has a square frame with a vertical line extending from the middle of the top of its frame to the middle of the bottom of its frame. One can trace the Roman capital letter T in this symbol by incorporating the top part of the frame along with the inside vertical line.

U: U has a square frame with a diagonal line extending from the middle of the bottom of its frame to the middle of the right side of its frame. One can trace the Roman capital letter U in this symbol by incorporating the left, bottom and right parts of the frame along with the inside diagonal line. The diagonal line inside has a jagged edge, much like stairs that ascend to the right.

V: V has a square frame in which two diagonal lines extend from the middle of the bottom of its frame to the middle of the right and left sides of its frame. One can trace the Roman capital letter V in this symbol by using the diagonal lines.

W: W has a square frame and has a small barb, or tail, inside the middle of the bottom part of the frame. One can trace the Roman capital letter W in this symbol by tracing from the top left corner to the bottom of the frame, across to the barb, up and down the barb, across to the right corner, and up the right side of the frame to the top. The letter W is similar to the letters M, G and J; they each have a barb on the inside of their square frame.

X: X has a square frame with two diagonal lines inside the frame, each extending from one corner of the top of its frame to the opposite bottom corner, like a Roman letter X.

Y: Y has a square frame with two dots inside. One of the dots is in the top left corner; the other dot is in the top right corner.

Z: Z has a square frame with a diagonal line extending from the top right corner of its frame to the bottom left corner of its frame. Once can trace the Roman capital letter Z in this symbol by incorporating the top and bottom parts of the frame and the inside diagonal line.

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