World Braille Day

  Today, the 4th of January is ‘ World Braille Day ’. A day to honor Louis Braille , the inventor of the braille system . Born in France in 180, Louis Braille lost his sight at the age of three after an accident. Despite his disability, he excelled in his education and went on to develop the braille system at the age of 15. He based the system on a system of raised dots that was already in use, but he simplified and improved upon it.

  On World Braille Day , we honor The legacy of Louis Braille and showcase the impact that his invention has had on the lives of people with vision loss. 

  In 1812, in the small village of Coupvray, France, 3-year-old Louis Braille  played in his father’s harness shop next to the family’s house. His father was one of the best harness makers in the area. Mr. Braille also made reins, saddles and collars for the villagers’ horses. He cut strips of leather and punched holes in the leather with sharp tools. Louis had been warned that he was too young to play with the tools in the shop. That day, Mr. Braille stepped outside the shop to help a customer. Louis thought he would try to punch a hole in a piece of leather just like his father did. He grabbed the tool and tried to push it through the leather. He didn’t have the strength of his father. He tried again, pushing harder. The tool slipped from his hand and flew up and into his left eye. Louis screamed with pain. His parents, two sisters and brother ran to help him. They put a cloth over his eye. There was no hospital in Coupvray. The closest doctor was very far away. They took ...

    The story so far: At age 3, Louis Braille became blind after playing with a tool in his father’s harness shop. Mr. Louis Braille carved a small wooden cane for Louis to help the boy feel things that were ahead of him when he walked. When Louis was 6, a new priest came to town. The priest gave Louis lessons for a year, but Louis wanted to go to the village school with the other children. So a classmate agreed to pick him up each morning and lead him to school. Louis listened to the teacher and memorized what he heard. Even though he couldn’t read or write, he was the best student in the class . He studied there for three years. At times Louis Braille was frustrated because he could not read or write. The priest and the principal thought Louis would do better in a school for blind students . There was only one school like this in France — the Royal Institute for Blind Youth . It was in Paris, 25 miles away. Louis’ parents were reluctant to let him go away from home. He was...

The story so far: Louis Braille studied at a school for blind students where the few books made for the blind were heavy and hard to read. A retired French army captain, Charles Barbier, came to visit the Royal Institute for Blind Youth. He had invented a way for soldiers to send messages to each other at night without needing light or having to talk. If they had to use light or make noise, the enemy could spot the soldiers and shoot at them. With a pointed tool, the captain punched dots and dashes into heavy paper. The dots and dashes represented different sounds . These marks were combined to form words and could be read without light or sound. But the soldiers found it too difficult to use. The captain thought blind students might be able to use it instead. The students tried to read some of the messages but they also found the system complicated to learn and difficult to use. Many dots were required to represent a single word. Still, it took up less space than the existing proc...

The story so far: Louis Braille spent his spare time at his school for the blind trying to improve on a night writing system so blind students could learn to read and write. Louis’ classmates at the Royal Institute for Blind Youth tried out his new Braille alphabet system . They were delighted to find how well it worked. Now they could take notes in class. Memorizing long class lectures wasn’t necessary any more. They didn’t need anyone’s help to read or write. Louis was very happy that his classmates liked his new code, but he wanted other blind people to be able to use it too. The school director wrote to the French government and asked if Louis’ dot alphabet could be made the official system of writing for the blind. In the meantime, Louis became an assistant teacher at the institute. His classes were very popular. He also spent a lot of time copying books into his code. He even added symbols so that blind musicians could read and write music. He eventually had a book published...

  The story so far: Louis Braille created a new dot alphabet for his blind classmates. When Louis returned from the Exhibition of Industry in Paris , he was sad that his invention wouldn’t be available to other blind people. In the last few years he had occasionally felt tired. He also sometimes had a bad cough and fever. He grew sicker. His doctor told him he had consumption, or what we today call tuberculosis. At that time the only remedy for this disease was fresh air and rest. Louis taught less and spent time outside. He continued to improve the dot alphabet. He added the letter “w” so that his code could be used to write English. And he worked on creating math textbooks for blind students. A new director came to the Royal Institute for Blind Youth and wouldn’t allow the students to continue using Louis’ new alphabet. The director was afraid that the students would become too independent and would no longer need the teachers who could see. Louis was very disappointed. His ...