Visually impaired became literate thanks to him: Who is Louis Braille?

Louis Braille invented the Braille system used around the world for the visually impaired. Braille alphabet is read by passing the raised dots 1 to 6 in a certain order with the fingers. It has been adapted to almost all languages, except Asian languages, which contain special characters.

Louis Braille was born on January 4, 1809, in the village of Coupvray, France. His father, Simon-Rene, was a saddler who produced braille leather harnesses and saddles, and his mother was a housewife. Braille, who lost his left eye as a result of an accident when he was 3 years old, lost his right eye at the age of 6 due to sympathetic ophthalmia and became completely blind.

At the age of 10, he was entitled to enter the National Institute for the Blind in Paris by receiving a scholarship. The scholarship he received changed his fate as a blind man. At that time, the fate of a blind teenager was to beg for money in the streets. In the school, where living conditions were difficult and students could not find much food other than bread and water, his skills in playing the organ and cello in a short time made Braille rise in the eyes of his teachers.

During this period, he learned to read using the embossed letters method invented by the school's founder and first principal, Valentin Haüy. But this system had many problems. Books were very expensive and very heavy due to the lead used for embossing.

In 1821, a writing system was developed by former French Army Captain Charles Barbier to decipher military codes in the dark without light. Written in 12 different dotted letters, this writing was not effective and very difficult to learn. It was also rejected by the military.

Braille changed this system. Just 6 different dots were enough for the letters. Braille, who designed this new alphabet at the age of 15, inspired by an embossed wooden dice that his father gave him as a gift, soon became the hope of all visually impaired people around the world. Later, he adapted this system to mathematics and music in the following years.

The first book for the visually impaired, Words, Music and the Method of Simple Songs, was published in 1829. Braille, who spent the rest of his life as a teacher, died of tuberculosis in Paris on January 6, 1852.

According to a study conducted in the USA, 58 percent of visually impaired students used Braille as their primary reading tool in the 1960s, today this figure has dropped to 10 percent.