World Braille Day

On January 4, much of the world celebrates World Braille Day, on the birthday of Louis Braille, the man who created a way for the blind to read.

Louis was born in France in 1809, and at age 3 suffered an unfortunate accident that left him blind. When he was 10 years old he won a scholarship to the National Institute for the Blind. After arriving, Louis found the current technique for reading for the blind overly difficult and complex. The letters were pressed against copper wire, which made the books very expensive and very heavy—sometimes weighing more than a hundred pounds.

When Louis was 12 years old, Charles Barbier visited the National Institute for the Blind. He had been commissioned by Napoleon to create a code that soldiers could read silently and without light. The code, which contained 12 dots per character, was too difficult for soldiers to learn and was rejected by the military. After learning about this code from Barbier, Louis simplified it to 6 dots per character. He finished the Braille raised-dot system in 1824, when he was 15 years old. Braille has since been adapted to almost every language.