(upbeat music)
- [Narrator] Behold, braille,
but where did it come from.
Meet Louis Louis Braille.
Born in 1809 in France.
Louis Braille wasn't born blind,
instead, he lost his sight
when he was three years old.
He continued his education
but it was a struggle
to learn by listening alone.
Luckily, his hard work paid off
and he earned a scholarship
to the Royal Institution
for Blind Youth in Paris
when he was just 10 years old,
but even at this school,
Louis's education was difficult.
The school had 14 books
written with raised letters,
but it took too long to trace each letter.
Louis knew there had to be a better way.
Inspired by French
captain Charles Barbier's
method of night riding,
Louis built on Barbier's principles.
Designing a way for the
blind to read quickly
using their sense of
touch as their fingers
passed across a page.
Today this system is known as braille.
Earlier codes built to be
interpreted through touch
had a common flaw.
They made the raised symbols too large
to be interpreted quickly.
Louis designed his system
using a six dot cell.
Where the letters of the
alphabet are represented
by a specific pattern of dots in the cell.
Each cell can be read without
moving the fingertips.
By the time he had invented this system,
Louis was only 15 years old.
After graduating from the institute,
he returned to teach.
Although the braille system wasn't taught
during his time at the institute,
Louis system gained popularity in France.
In 1854, the French government
officially recognized Braille,
and since that time, the rest of the world
has taken steps to
incorporate the braille system
in their language.
(slow paced upbeat music)
