original template by Ray Lam, Fall 97

revised template by Rachel Shorey, 4/14/98

Braille is a system of writing and printing for the blind. The braille system is on a special kind of paper. This paper has raised dots on it in which the blind can make out the different words in stories and articles. Blind people can also use special typewriters that write braille. The braille system is a wonderful way for the blind to be able to read and write just as the seeing world does.

The braille system was invented by Louis Braille in Paris, France in 1821. Louis was blinded himself at a young age. When Louis was three years old he wandered into his father's shoe-making workshop and found an awl, a sharp tool used for driving holes into the leather of the shoes. The awl slipped and pierced his eye, leaving that one blinded. By the time he was four, the blindness had infected his other eye and caused him to become completely without sight. When Louis Braille was ten, he was sent to a school for blind boys in Paris. There, he lived under harsh conditions, while learning how to make slippers so as they grew older they would have a source of income. One day, a soldier visited the school with a system he had invented called, "night talking." This system was created for the army. It consisted of twelve raised dots that represented different sounds and could be used for silent instruction. This source of communication proved to be too complicated for the soldiers and was eventually rejected. Young Louis figured this would be a good way for blind people to read and write. He recreated the soldier's idea by using six raised dots that would be arranged in various orders to create the letters of the alphabet. Louis called this system braille and later went on to create a variation of braille used for math and music.