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04.01.

How did Braille Come up with the Idea of a Writing System for the Blind? – 1809

How did Braille Come up with the Idea of a Writing System for the Blind? – 1809

Interestingly, Louis Braille got the idea of a writing system for the blind from a military invention, specifically “night writing”.



On this day the inventor of the writing for the blind – Louis Braille – was born . He himself was blinded during childhood due to an accident. Namely, his father was a tanner and a saddler, and little Braille played in his father’s workshop since the early childhood. On one occasion, when he was three years old, he played trying to make a hole in a peace of leather with an awl. The awl slipped and struck him in one eye. There was an infection. The doctors could not save that eye, and the infection was so strong that it spread to the other eye. By the age of five, Braille was completely blind in both eyes.

Interestingly, Braille got the idea of a writing system for the blind from a military invention, specifically “night writing”. It was a set of protrusions impressed into a thick paper that served as means for soldiers to communicate at night without light or speech. Braille simplified that system and that is how the writing for the blind was created, and is still used today.

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