Madison Cabrera
Mr. Skipper
Encounters 7
March 5, 2023
Louis Braille
Introduction
In this world, there are a lot of people who face a lot of challenges as part of their daily life, like blind people or disabled people and that can be a very hard thing to go through. Well in this case, Louis Braille was a kid whose accident changed his life forever, he got blinded at age 3 and it was very hard for him to communicate and do normal things. He improved the tools he had like the writing system to a more improved and better system nowadays called “Braille”. Louis Braille's idea of making the military’s raised dot reading method better, helped so many people and he also changed tons of lives forever. With his improved system, people with eye disabilities are now able to have a better education.They can learn like normal people and that gives them a new chance in life; similar to a sighted person.
The Early Life of Louis Braille
Louis Braille was influenced by a devastating event that changed his life forever. Louis
Braille was born on January 4, 1809, in a small town in France called Coupvray. His
parents, Monique and Simon-René, were also from Coupvary. Louis had three siblings:
Monique Catherine Josephine, Louise-Simon, and Marie Celine. Louis’s father was a
village saddler and he had a workshop at home; his mother was an agricultural laborer
(“Who was Louis Braille?”) When Braille was just a young boy, “he often used to play in
his father’s workshop”. One day, he was trying to make a hole in a piece of leather with
an awl when the tool slipped and poked him in the eye. The infection spread to the other
eye (“Who was Louis Braille?”). When he was just three years old, he was completely
blind and could not even see light. But a few years later, he found the “night writing”
used by the military used to communicate without light or noise. The night writing
system helped Braille to read and write in spite of his disability. By the age of ten, Braille
was a diligent and bright student, so he started attending one of the first blind schools in
the world, The Royal Institution of Blind Youth in Paris (“Who was Louis Braille”?).
Beginning of Career
One of the things that inspired Louis Braille to create the Braille system was the “Night
Writing used by the military. Braille released his technique to the public and in the
following years, his system had already had lots of publications about “The Braille”
(“Who was Louis Braille?”). When Braille was teaching history, algebra and geometry at
the Royal Institution for Blind Youth, he wanted to influence his system with the
students and teachers. Despite “The Braille” popularity with the students, the sighted
teachers in the Royal Institutions refused to help influence “The Braille” with the
students, even though Louis Braille studied and taught there (“Who was Louis
Braille?”). This meant that the students that studied in the Institute, didn't have the
opportunity to learn “The Braille” in their school, they had to learn on their own. It
It wasn't until 1854 that the Royal Institute started using it. In the beginning, when Louis posted his reading and writing system “The Braille'', it got rejected by the Royal Institute of Blind Youth but, once Braille’s students started to share “The Braille” , it became more popular in the Institution and in the community (“Who was Louis Braille?”). Louis had to leave the country and go back to his home in Coupary due to a illness, so he left with no hope that his system would become famous, but it turned out that he was wrong, because no more than three years later, Louis’s pupils helped make it more successful that it spread through a lot of more countries all over the world(“Braille Through the Years: Past, Present and Future”). That meant that Louis Braille’s students thought that he was an excellent teacher and a great person, that his blind students decided to help him encourage the system to help people like them even though he wasn't even there anymore.
Significant Accomplishments for Louis Braille
In 1786, there was no system specifically for blind people but there was a system created by Charles Barbier to help the military communicate silently (“Before Braille Raised Type of Europe”) . Because there was no other program or system to help the blind community, they decided to use that system to communicate among themselves. In 1829, when Louis Braille got introduced to the Night writing system, he was so excited because he could now read and write when he couldn’t since he was 3 years old. Louis Braille was inspired by the Night writing, but he decided to make it better. For five years he worked very hard to make the night writing system easier to learn and more expansive (“Before Braille Raised Type of Europe.”). When he thought he was finished, he shared it with the world. After Louis Braille published his system “ Braille'' in the following years it began to be more successful and more known by people all over the world. “ Braille'' became much more successful than the “Night Writing” because people thought that the “ Braille'' would help more academically; after all it was created to be easier to learn and quickly to read. It has 63 ways to use a six-dot cell in an area no bigger than a fingertip and after Braille began to notice its success he made the system available to fit in the world of music and mathematics (''Before Braille Raised Type of Europe”). But it wasn't always a simple path for Louis Braille. The first year that Braille published his system, people were debating whether to use “ Braille'' or the military’s “Night Writing”. Louis Braille's system was used by symbols and Charles Barbier used an alphabetical system meant that any literate person could teach blind students (“The Story of Louis Braille”). People didn't know what system to trust to actually make a change and that could be more helpful for the younger generations; they were mostly worried about how much it could help academically. One of the major reasons that Braille was much more successful was that it was better understood by young blind people, so they and everyone else started to use it. When people used it, they realized that “Braille” had more positive effects so, generation after generation up until now people still use “Braille” (“The Story of Louis Braille”).
Impact On The World
“Braille” had a great positive impact on the world. When the world started using it, they had a better chance to blend into the world and help with the bigger projects like companies that create new products or engineers that also make an impact in the world. Even when blind people go to school it was easier for them to learn, adapt to school and to society; they were able to not just learn better but to communicate better. Because it had such a giant good impact people were thinking that when they invent technology like screen readers and print reading devices, they would add it there so that it could still be a big part of the blind community (“Can The Past Help Plan The Future?”). The field of Louis Braille in his career was on making a better education and a better life for blind people so when he published his system everything changed for everyone, some may also say that it changed their life because “Braille” had such a big impact in the world, since he published it, it gave blind people a new fate and a new life with a better conclusion(“Can The Past Help Plan The Future?”). If Louis Braille had not gone blind at the age of three there is a very low change that he would have invented “Braille”, and if that hadn't happened the story of history in that field would have been very different, for example, blind people would have still used the night writing but it would have not been the same because; if kids that were still learning learned it they would have a much shorter vocabulary and they would not have the opportunities that “Braille” has to give (“Can The Past Help Plan The Future?”).
Lessons Learned From Their Life
Louis Braille had a great personality that helped him get through all of his challenges. Some of his good characteristics were dedication, intelligence and creativity (“Louis Braille''). While trying to make his system, “Braille '', Louis had to go through a lot of stress and had to stay up so many nights, but even though it was hard, he had dedication to finish his system hoping that it would help millions of people around the world like him. If Louis would've given up the system he invented it wouldn't be as great as it is today, but he worked hard because of his intelligence and he wouldn't let his brilliant idea go away. Because of his extreme dedication, durability and passion he was able to invent a great system that helps a lot of blind people nowadays (“Louis Braille”). And if we really think about it, those characteristics helped him become the great person with such success that he was because at the end his goal was to help people have a better opportunity in living their life. I can apply those lessons to my life by always thinking that if I work hard enough for something and have a lot of dedication like Louis Braille had, I can make anything possible. Some of the things that make Louis someone to look up to is that his goal in life was to help people and that is very generous. His whole project from the beginning was to make a system that blind people like him could use and it could be more helpful than any other (“Louis Braille”).
Work Cited
“Before Braille Raised Type of Europe.” Europeana, www.europeana.eu/en/blog/before-braille-raised-type-in-europe .
Bett, ”Louis Braille.” My Hero, myhero.com/L_Braille4_dnhs_US_2010#:~:text=With%20the%20finished%20system%2C%20Braille,him%20in%20a%20better%20way.
“Braille Through the Years: Past, Present and Future.” RNIB: | See Differently, Royal National Institute of Blind People, rnib.org.uk/living-with-sight-loss/education-and-learning/braille-tactile-codes/braille-through-the-years-past-present-and-future/.
(“Can The Past Help Plan The Future?”) The Evolution Of Braille, The Braille Authority of North America, brailleauthority.org/article/evolution_of_braille-part1.pdf.
Johnston, David. “Who was Louis Braille?” Sight Scotland, 11 Jan. 2021, sightscotland.org.uk/articles/information-and-advice/who-was-louis-braille.
“Louis Braille.” Biography, A&E Television Network, 22 Dec. 2015, biography.com/scholar/louis-braille.