Louis Braille was born on January 4, 1809. When he was three, he accidentally injured one of his eyes. Over next two years, injured eye got infected, and let to complete blindness. Louis as well as his parents were determined to get an education for him. At age 10, Louis Braille had enrolled in National Institute for Blind Youth in Paris. It his here, Louis invented a code for alphabets. This code had various combinations of six elevated dots, and suddenly the world of books was available for the visually impaired. They could now see the unseen, with their fingers.
Dawn of this idea
One day a French Army Officer named Charles Barbier, visited the National Institute for Blind Youth. In 1819, he had developed a 12-dot code for soldiers, so that they could silently talk to each other in the battlefield, even when it was dark. Louis Braille thought that the tactile coding system was a great idea and could be the basis for a form of reading and writing that might be useful for the blind.
Over next five years, Louis developed a simpler six-dot code so that the blind could use a single index finger to feel and read. These six dots are in form of two columns of three dots lined up vertically next to each other. Thus, Braille was born, a tactile reading and writing system of a total of 64 symbols.
Braille is a code
Braille is not a language, it is just a code. Any language can be coded in Braille. Today this code of elevated letters is used by visually impaired to read any language in the world. In 1824, Louis presented his code to his fellow students. In 1829, at age 20, he published the first braille book Method of Writing Words, Music, and Plain Songs by Means of Dots for Use by the Blind and Arranged for Them.
As an adult, Braille became the first blind apprentice teacher at the New School for the Blind in Paris, France. There, he taught algebra, grammar, music, and geography. He later became the first blind full professor at the school. Despite great utility for Braille , in 1840 the institute’s director banned this code. He felt that if everyone who was blind could read as a result of using braille, there would be no need for sighted teachers for the blind. Louis Braille died of Tuberculosis in 1852, at a young age of 43 years.
Braille resurrected after Louis’s death
Two years after Louis Braille’s death, his code was finally adopted by the Institute. The system initially spread throughout the French-speaking world. Later in 1873, Thomas Rhodes Armitage championed its use and later in 1916, braille was officially adopted by schools for the blind in the United States.
An Braille code for english language was formalised in 1932. By the year 1960, many students with visual disturbance were using Braille for learning.
In January of 2016, US adopted Unified English Braille, or UEB, code. This code was adopted in 2012 by the Braille Authority of North America (BANA) after more than 80 years of the inception of the first Braille code in the United States. Newer Braille versions also shorten many letters, to use less space and yet maintain its readability.
Today Braille is used on signage in public spaces, such as lift key pads, door signs and even on restaurant menus. While only a fraction of visually impaired individuals know Braille, the code is also a means to assert accessibility and independence.
Braille Bicentenary
Louis Braille was celebrated worldwide in 2009 for Braille’s Bicentennial. Many countries issued postage stamps featuring Louis Braille and the script that is named after him.
Braille in popular usage today
In today’s digital world electronic braille notetakers and refreshable braille displays are also available, Further, many popular classic games have adapted braille versions, for example Monopoly, Scrabble Uno and Braille playing cards. LEGO have created LEGO Braille Bricks as a playful way to teach braille.
New variations in braille technology continue to grow, including such innovations as braille computer terminals; RoboBraille email delivery service; and Nemeth Braille, a comprehensive system for mathematical and scientific notation. Almost two centuries after its invention, braille remains a system of powerful and enduring utility.
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