Introduction to braille
Invention of braille
Louis Braille was born in 1809. His parents were poor and his father worked as a saddle maker in the small French town of Coupvray. As a young boy, Louis was blinded by an accident while playing in his father's workshop. His early education took place at the local village school but when he was 10 years old Louis was sent to Paris to attend a special school for the blind. Here he spent the rest of his life – first as a student, then as a teacher – until his death in 1852.
In Paris Louis Braille established a reputation for himself as a distinguished organist and also as a scientist, but by far his greatest achievement was the invention of the system of embossed writing which bears his name. Braille spent most of his life struggling to gain recognition for his system and have it adopted officially. But those in authority were so prejudiced in favour of the existing method of raised roman letters that his arguments were in vain. Yet the merits of Braille's system were appreciated by blind students themselves, who used it without official sanction for many years.
At the time of his death, Braille's long struggle was coming close to success. Two years later in 1854 his system finally gained official recognition. Its use spread to other countries rapidly. Several rival systems of dot writing appeared in the years that followed, but Louis Braille's system has outlasted them all.
How braille works
By using a six-dot cell, 63 different patterns can be formed (consisting of one to six dots). Uncontracted braille uses 26 of these symbols to stand for the letters of the alphabet, while contracted braille makes use of all 63 symbols to represent whole words, combinations of two or more letters and punctuation marks. Contracted braille may sound complex but it can make reading quicker and easier, and it saves space.