Louis Braille

Who Was Louis Braille?

Louis Braille, the son of a harness maker, lost his sight due to an accident at the age of three. He received his education at the National Institute for Blind Youth in Paris, where he created a revolutionary raised-dot code that enabled blind individuals to read and write. Although his system saw limited use during his lifetime, it has since been embraced globally. Louis Braille passed away in 1852.

Early Life and Education

Born on January 4, 1809, in Coupvray, France, Louis Braille was the fourth child of Simon-René and Monique Braille. Simon-René Braille was a skilled harness maker, crafting saddles and other equestrian gear. At the age of three, Braille accidentally injured one of his eyes with an awl, a sharp tool used for puncturing leather. Unfortunately, the injury led to infection in both eyes, resulting in complete blindness by the time he was five years old. Despite the limited opportunities available for blind individuals at the time, Braille’s parents were determined to provide him with an education. He initially attended a local school, where he learned through auditory methods.

At the age of ten, Braille received a scholarship to the National Institute for Blind Youth in Paris, the first institution of its kind, founded by Valentin Haüy to educate blind students. At the institute, Braille acquired both academic and vocational skills. During his studies, he encountered Charles Barbier, who had developed a code using different combinations of twelve raised dots to represent sounds while serving in the French army. This system, known as sonography, was designed for silent communication among soldiers at night. However, it proved too complex for military use, prompting Barbier to consider its potential applications for blind individuals.

Educator and Inventor

Braille, along with other students at the institute, recognized the promise of Barbier’s system but also identified its limitations. The complexity of the code made it challenging to learn, and its basis in sounds rather than letters posed significant obstacles. Between the ages of twelve and fifteen, Braille dedicated himself to developing a simpler and more effective system. His innovation featured only six dots, arranged in two columns of three, with various combinations assigned to letters and punctuation marks, culminating in a total of 64 symbols.

In 1829, Braille published Method of Writing Words, Music, and Plain Songs by Means of Dots for Use by the Blind and Arranged for Them. By the age of nineteen, he had become an apprentice teacher at the National Institute for Blind Youth, and by twenty-four, he was a fully qualified teacher. In 1837, the institute published the first book in braille. Despite its revolutionary nature, Braille’s system faced controversy at the institute. The school’s director, Alexandre François-René Pignier, had supported the use of braille, but his successor, Pierre-Armand Dufau, prohibited it upon taking office in 1840. Nonetheless, by 1850, when Braille was forced to retire due to tuberculosis, his six-dot method was well on its way to achieving widespread acceptance.

Death

Louis Braille passed away due to illness on January 6, 1852, in Paris, France, at the age of 43.