World Braille Day: Here’s all you need to know about Louis Braille

Today (January 4) is World Braille Day, commemorating the birth anniversary of Louis Braille, the founder of the tactile alphabet code for the partially sighted and the blind. He was born on this day in 1809, and the United Nations has been commemorating the day since 2019 to raise awareness on the importance of the Braille system as a form of communication for the visually impaired.

About Louis Braille

Braille was born in Coupvray, France. At the age of three, he accidentally poked his eye with a needle, which eventually led him to lose sight in both eyes. However, his blindness could not prevent Braille from excelling in his studies. He was a brilliant student.

At the age of ten, Braille got admission to the National Institute for the Blind in Paris — the only school for the blind in France then. At that time, the visually impaired used to read through the Hauy system, invented in 1785 by Valentin Hauy, who also founded the first school for the blind in Paris. The Hauy system involves embossing Latin characters on leather or heavy paper.

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While at the institute, Braille got to know about a system developed by Captain Charles Barbier, a French army officer, that could help the blind read and write. Captain Barbier had devised it so that soldiers could interact at night without speaking. The system, which used a series of raised dots to represent different letters and words, was known as “night writing.”

A man with a vision

Braille recognized the potential of this system and believed he could improve upon it. In 1824, when he was only 15, Braille developed his own system of communication for the blind, involving six raised dots arranged in a cell of three rows and two columns. He called it the Braille system.

Each dot in Braille has a meaning, and the different combinations of dots represent the letters of the alphabet, numbers, and punctuation marks. There can be 64 Braille cell combinations, including empty cells.

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People were quick to accept the Braille system. Though Braille takes up more space than the standard alphabet, it was life-changing for the visually impaired. Nemeth code, a special system of Braille, is used for mathematics. There is also a Braille system for sheet music, in which the dots stand for musical notes.

A life-changing invention

The goal of World Braille Day is to raise public awareness of the importance of Braille as a means of communication for the visually impaired.

There are Braille versions for many languages now, including English, Spanish, French, German, Chinese, Hebrew, and Arabic. Braille is also used in everyday products to help blind people interpret the instructions. Braille can be written using instruments like the Perkins Brailler.

Data from the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) Vision Atlas says that over 253 million people had some form of visual impairment in 2015. Around 36 million people across the world were considered blind. Braille is a tool for literacy, autonomy, and employability for such individuals.

(With agency inputs)