Louis Braille
Louis Braille (1809–1852) was the French educator who invented the Braille system of raised-dot reading and writing for the blind.
Blinded in childhood by an accident, he developed his tactile alphabet while a teenager at the Royal Institute for Blind Youth in Paris.
The system, adapted from a military night-writing code, uses patterns of one to six raised dots to represent letters, numbers, and punctuation. (Lowercase braille is the system itself.)
Of the touching sense
- dotsSmall circular marks
- embossedHaving raised design
- cellsBasic biological units
- slateFissile metamorphic rock
stylus · Perkins · transcription · refreshable · display · contractions · reading · writing
Unable to perceive visually
- visual impairmentUncorrectable seeing deficit
- accessibilityEase of approach
- accommodationShelter or housing provided
- independenceFreedom from external control
literacy · empowerment · inclusion · advocacy · childhood · accident · awl · infection
Thorough change in form
- literacyAbility to read, write
- educationSystematic development of mind
- liberationRelease from constraint
- independenceFreedom from external control
autonomy · equality · opportunity · commemoration · bicentennial · statue · stamps · biography
Western European republic
- ParisFrance's chief city
- nineteenth-centuryThe years 1801-1900
- NapoleonicOf the French emperor
- organistPipe keyboard performer
musician · church · Catholic · cemetery · reinterment · honorary
Creating something original
- creativityCapacity for original thought
- inventionNew device or method
- pioneerEarly explorer or settler
- breakthroughSudden important advance
ingenuity · code · system · adaptation · simplification · teenager · prodigy · genius
tactile
Of the touching sense
slate · stylus · Perkins · transcription · refreshable · display · contractions · reading · writing · touch
sightless
Unable to perceive visually
- visual impairmentUncorrectable seeing deficit
- accessibilityEase of approach
- accommodationShelter or housing provided
independence · literacy · empowerment · inclusion · advocacy · childhood · accident · awl · infection
transformation
Thorough change in form
- literacyAbility to read, write
- educationSystematic development of mind
- liberationRelease from constraint
independence · autonomy · equality · opportunity · commemoration · bicentennial · statue · stamps · biography · recognition
France
Western European republic
- ParisFrance's chief city
- nineteenth-centuryThe years 1801-1900
- NapoleonicOf the French emperor
organist · musician · church · Catholic · cemetery · reinterment · honorary
innovation
Creating something original
- creativityCapacity for original thought
- inventionNew device or method
- pioneerEarly explorer or settler
breakthrough · ingenuity · code · system · adaptation · simplification · teenager · prodigy · genius · tinkerer
- french inventorsBlaise Pascal
- blindnessblindness, blind spot, total blindness, partial blindness, low vision
- louis
- blind serviceswhite cane, guide dog, guide dogs, white canes, screen readers
- Visually Impairedblind person, legally blind, low vision, partially sighted, guide dog user
- Brailleraised dots, embosser, grade 1, grade 2, formatting rules