History of Braille and some facts about Braille0

Article by Mark Weiss

Braille is a form of writing that was designed to help blind people have the ability to read. A person without sight cannot see written characters on a page which makes learning for them much more difficult. Braille was invented in France in 1821 and was created from a system originally designed by Charles Barber to be a silent military code that did not require light to read. Napoleon was not satisfied with the earlier version proposed by Barber, and rejected it for use due to its overwhelming complexity. Years later Louise Braille revised the code into Braille, and recognized that the new language could be used to provide sightless people with the ability to read. This led to the founding of schools for the blind.

Today Braille has evolved into a huge set of alphabets. Almost every language on the planet has its own form of Braille alphabet. Numbers can also be represented in Braille. The invention of the Braille alphabet has created lots of opportunities for blind people who at one time could only learn through being read to. Now a non-sighted person is able to learn without the aid of another person. Braille is relatively easy to learn is also useful to people who have sight that has degraded to the point where they are unable to read.

A Braille character consists of two columns of three dots. This system allows for 256 distinct possible combinations, which is more than enough to represent all the letters in an alphabet. Braille is read with the fingers. Today it is possible to obtain copies of famous pieces of literature transcribed into Braille. There are companies that specialize in Braille translation services that are able to translate any written document, article, book, or manuscript into Braille for the enjoyment of a blind person.

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