Inventor: Louis Braille

The French child inventor Louis Braille was born near Paris in France in 1809. Louis was a bright and inquisitive child. At the age of 3, when he was playing in his father’s shoe shop, Louis injured his eye with a sharp tool. Infection set in and soon spread to the other eye, leaving him completely blind. Louis’ parents, together with the local priest and the schoolteacher, had realised Louis’ great learning abilities and wanted to give him all the opportunities to develop them. So, he used to sit in the classroom to learn what he could by listening. Despite his handicap, he was soon top of the class. At the age of 10, Louis was sent to a special school for the blind in Paris where most instruction was oral, although there were some books (only 14 in the school) in a raised-print system developed by the school’s founder. Louis did very well at his studies and developed a talent for music, especially the piano and the organ. Because of his handicap he decided to dedicate his time to improving conditions for blind people. He wanted to develop a tactile alphabet that would allow blind people to read and write. A French army captain, Charles Barbier had developed a system for reading messages in the dark based upon a series of raised dots. Barbier visited Louis’ school with his system and Louis started to study it more. Soon he discovered the potential of the basic idea and also the problems. By the age of 15, Louis had developed the system that we know today as Braille, employing a 6-dot unit and based upon normal spelling. In 1827, Louis published his first Braille book. It was not an immediate success but by the time Louis Braille died in 1852, blind people had the chance to read and write books, music and mathematical tables. Today in every language of the world, Braille is the standard form of writing and reading used by blind people. If a blind child is taught Braille skills, he or she will grow up able to read at almost the same speed of children who can see.