Louis Braille went blind at age 3 and ended up spending most of his life living at a school for blind boys. There, he invented a new way for blind people to read and write with, which came to be used by blind people around the world centuries on. This is the story of the inventor of the Braille writing system.

1809 – Louis Braille is born in a small farming village called Coupvray in France. They are not rich but the family has a cow, chickens, a vegetable garden, fruit trees and a small vineyard. His father is a harness and saddle maker. His mother is a homemaker who looks after the family’s garden. He has older sisters and a brother.

Age 3 – While playing with his father’s tools, Louis accidentally pierces his own eye. As the hospital is too far away, they can only get help from locals. Louis goes blind in one eye. The infection of his first eye spreads to his second eye and he goes blind in that eye too. 

Age 4 – His parents give him a cane to use to move around with. His father also teaches him how to make harnesses with his hands and uses nails in the shape of alphabets to teach him the alphabet. A village priest begins to tutor Louis. 

Age 7 –  The village priest convinces a teacher at the village school to let Louis attend classes. A neighbour walks him to school every day. 

Age 9 – The village priest and Louis’ teacher suggest that he go to the only school for blind children in the country. The priest goes to see the lord of Coupvray who writes a letter to the director of the school for the blind asking him to give Louis a scholarship to study there. The school approves their request. 

Age 10 – Louis moves to the Royal Institute for Blind Youth in Paris and lives in the dormitory. He meets a new friend, Gabriel Gauthier who would end up as his friend for life. School is 15 hours long every day. Mornings are for academics, afternoons are for learning a trade. The students learn by memorising because there is no way for them to read and write. Louis also joins the school orchestra and the chorus. There are only 14 books for the blind at the school, all made with giant letters. 

Age 12 – An officer from the French army introduces a system of reading and writing to Louis’ school called ‘night reading’. He invented it for soldiers to use in the dark in battlefields and thought it would help the blind too. It helps the boys write to each other but it doesn’t help them write to people who don’t know ‘night reading’. The officer doesn’t take the feedback Louis gives him so Louis decides to improve the system on his own. Over the next 3 years, he and his friends will discuss how to make the system better.

Age 14 – Louis is put in charge of the slipper workshop. 

Age 15 – He creates the alphabet using six dots that can be read using one hand and shows it to the principal. It works and his method is soon used in the school. Students can now take notes instead of having to memorise everything.  

Age 19 – Louis graduates. The principal asks him to stay on as a student teacher. His friend Gabriel is also staying on as a student teacher. Louis agrees and begins teaching geography and grammar. For the first time in his life, Louis gets his own room. In the evening, he works on a paper describing his raised-dot reading system. 

Age 20 – The Institute publishes his paper and the principal asks the French government to adopt it for the blind in the country. The government refuses, preferring to stick to the old method of using giant embossed words. 

Age 22 – His brother writes to him saying that his father is dangerously ill. His father soon dies. Louis himself develops bad health. 

Age 24 – Louis gets promoted to full teacher and begins wearing the teacher’s uniform. He teaches geography, history, grammar, arithmetic and algebra.

Age 25 – The principal of the Institute gets Louis to demonstrate his code at the Paris Exposition of Industry. This exposes his system to many government officials and even the King of France but still, his system goes nowhere.

Age 26 – Louis is diagnosed with tuberculosis. 

Age 30 – Louis gets the idea to use 10 dots instead of 6 to improve his writing system so that the blind and sighted can use it together. He calls it the decapoint. He and a former student, Pierre start building a machine to write these dots faster. 

Age 31 – The principal of the Institute retires and is replaced by a cold and disagreeable man with different ideas. He changes many things at the Institute and stops the school from using Louis’ writing system, going so far as to punish students for using it. However, the students who have been using it for so long now refuse to stop. When the new principal removes their writing tools, they use forks and nails to keep writing. Older boys even make sure the younger boys know how to use Louis’ writing system. Eventually the new principal’s assistant convinces the principal to just allow the students to use it. 

Age 33 – Louis and Pierre’s machine is done. They call it the raphigraphe.

Age 34 – The Institute moves to new premises. At the opening, the new principal’s assistant showcases Louis’ writing system to the general public. They are impressed. Louis however begins to spend more time away from school as his tuberculosis is taking a toll and he needs to rest. 

Age 38 – Louis’ health improves and he begins translating books into his writing system. 

Age 41 – His health becomes poor again and he decides to retire. The director approves his retirement but asks him to continue living at the Institute. 

Age 42 – Louis begins coughing blood towards the end of the year. 

Age 43 – Louis dies of tuberculosis. He is buried next to his father and sister at Coupvray cemetery. 

2 years after death – The French Government finally decides to use Louis’ writing system as the official system for the blind in France to read and write with. It soon comes to be known as “braille” and is adopted around the world. 

100 years after death – Louis is finally recognised and honoured by France for his work. His remains are moved from Coupvray to the Pantheon in Paris—the resting place for French heroes. 

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Photographs: Public Domain. Compiler: Sy
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