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Louis Braille is famous for simplifying the reading and writing system used by the blind. Even though Louis became blind himself, he didn’t let that stop him from helping other blind people. His Braille alphabet helped blind people to learn and live worthwhile lives. His helping others made his own life enjoyable and worthwhile. Young Life Louis Braille was born on January 4, 1809 in Coupvray, France. When Louis was
three years old he had a terrible accident that would change his life forever.
It happened one day while he was alone in his father’s workshop. His father
made leather horse saddles. Louis knew what every single tool did. He wanted to
help, so he picked up his father’s sharpest knife and At School After the war a Priest moved to town and decided to try to help Louis. The
Priest became Louis’ private teacher and after one year arranged for Louis to
attend the new school in Coupvray. Despite being blind, Louis was always at the
top of his class because of his great memory and sense of concentration. By
1818, the Priest and school recommended that Louis To Louis, "night writing" still wasn’t perfect. The problem was that it was hard to tell the difference between the dots and dashes with the fingertips. After being introduced to Barbier’s system, Louis decided to work out the problems in "night writing." Finally in 1834, while teaching at the Institute he completed his Braille system. His first improvement was to take out the dashes. He then began reducing the number of dots representing each letter. The Braille alphabet known today divides the letters in three groups.
Group one, letters A-J, use the top four dots, which are 1,2, 4,
Even though Louis Braille died on January 6, 1852, he is still helping blind people today. Now you might be saying, "How can a dead person help people?" Well, the reason is that Louis Braille’s alphabet still helps blind people today learn how to read and write. A blind person inventing something as important as Braille? Wow! That’s really cool! Don’t you think so? Louis Braille Timeline
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tried to cut the leather
that his father had left on the workbench. While Louis tried to cut the leather,
the knife slipped out of his hands and sliced right through his left eye. The
eye became infected and the infection spread to his right eye. Within two years,
Louis was completely blind. He now had to learn to get around by listening to
sounds and by touch. Then, in 1814, the Russians invaded France and the Brailles
were forced to house Russian soldiers. During this time, Louis was very unhappy
because he couldn’t see or understand these strangers. He lost all of his
memory of what things looked like and was ignored and mistreated by the Russian
visitors. Louis became very lonely and sad.
attend the National Institute
for Blind Youth in Paris. When Louis arrived at the Institute, he was taught to
read by feeling the shapes of the raised wooden letters. Valentin Hauy, who had
founded the Institute in 1784, developed this system. The Institute used the
raised wooden letters until 1821 when Charles Barbier came to the school to
present to the students of the Institute his system called "night
writing." "Night writing" was a system of dots and dashes
developed by Barbier in 1819 to help his soldiers share information silently at
night. The school then adopted this alphabetic system. Even though "night
writing" was complicated, Louis and his fellow classmates found this system
easier to use than the raised wooden letters.
and 5. To
make letters from group two, letters K-T, you just add dot number three. Adding
the sixth dot creates group three, letters U-Z. In French, the letter W is not
used so this letter was added to the Braille alphabet after the first version
was made.
