Louis Braille was born in the French town of Coupvray, near Paris on January the 4th, 1809.
His father, Simon René Braille, was a harness maker and was married to Monique.
Louis often played in his fathers workshop, unaware of the dangers of the sharp tools his father used in his profession. While playing, he stabbed in his eye with an instrument used to punch holes in leather. The wound wasn't very serious, but it infected and spread out to the other eye. At the age of 4, he became completely blind.

But Louis was a very bright boy, and with help from his family, he was able to receive a very rich education. He went to a normal school, studying with kids who weren't blind.
Dispite his handicap, Louis was one of the best students of his class.
At the age of ten, Louis went to the Royal Institution for Blind Youth in Paris.
The lessons were oral, but there were books available in a raised-print system, invented by Valentin Haüy, the founder of the Royal Institution for Blind Youth in Paris.
His system wasn't very efficient, though: the books contained large, raised letters,
which took up alot of room, so the books were very large and heavy.
Those books were also very heavy. In general, Louis was a very good student, but he distinguished himself from the others because of his musical talent. He played the piano and the organ.

Louis got the idea for the braille alfabeth from a French army captain, Charles Barbier.
It was very annoying soldiers had to make light before they could read messages, because the enemy could easily spot the light source and use it as a target.
So he invented a tactile alphabet, allowing soldiers who knew the code to read & write messages at night, without the need for light.
He later saw the usefulness of his invention for blind people, and he adapted his alphabet so it could be used by the blind. His invention was only partly appreciated, but Louis studied and re-invented the alphabet, making it especially handy for blind people.
He used the spelling as a basis for the alphabet, instead of the phonetics Barbier used.
He also replaced the Barbier's 12-dot cell by a 6-dot cell. Due to his addiction to music, he also customized the braille system so it could represent music.
In 1829 he published a book, named "Method of Writing Words, Music and Plain Song by Means of Dots, for Use by the Blind and Arranged by Them".

Before his deatch on January 6, 1852, his system never really got accepted.
But the next years, the popularity of the braille system increased dramaticly.
People realized the simple but powerfull system was the perfect means for blind to read.

Today, the braille system is the standard reading system blind children learn.
People using the brailly system read almost as fast as you are doing right now.