The Life of Louis

Braille
Presentation By: Doan Hai Phong
 1. Childhood
If you live in the 19th century, would you believe me if
I say a blind man invented a writing system for the
blind? Well, that is what Louis Braille did. Louis
Braille was born on January 4th 1809 in Coupvray.
When he was two years old, he visited his father’s
workshop. Unfortunately, he got injured in his eyes by
an awl. The injury soon spread to his second eye and
when he was 5, he completely lost his eyesight. For a
few years, he was devastated. But soon, Braille’s Coupvray
parents encouraged him to live a normal life. Because
he was blind, his biggest dream was to read. So when
was 10, he was sent to Paris to study at the Royal
Institute for the Blind Youth. At that time, the system
used for the blind is the ‘Hauy system’. However, it
wasn’t the best reading system for the blind, because
so many letters feel the same like O and Q.

Royal Institute
for Blind
2. Life and Career
In 1821, Braille met Charles Barbier, who had
invented a new reading system for the blind.
Charles was a soldier that was asked to
invented
system called ‘night writing’ which do not require Charles Barbier’s ‘Night Writing’
eyesight to read. Braille was very impressed by the
system take it as an inspiration for his own writing system.
system, ‘Braille’. And in 1824, he finally completed
the Braille system. In 1826, Braille decided to teach
at the Royal Institute for Blind Youth in order to
spread his writing system even further. From the
start, people had many doubts because they don’t
believe that the blind can’t read or write. But still,
in 1829, Braille published his system with six
raised
dots. And just eight years later, in 1837, he
published the second edition which was made all
by
himself. In 1839, he also published a book called
‘New Method for Representing the Dots’ to let the Louis Braille’s ‘Braille’
blind write normally and also let people who system.
weren’t blind can understand. Because of
overworking, his health got worse and worse. He
stopped teaching when he was 40.
3. Death and Legacy
On January 6th 1852, Louis Braille passed away at the Royal Institution in Paris due to
tuberculosis. After his death, people build his statue and put it in Coupvray, his
hometown.