LOUIS BRAILLE 1809 - 1852 THE GENIOUS BEHIND THE HANDICAP In 1812, in the small village of Coupvray , France, 3-year-old Louis Braille played in his father's harness shop next to the family's house His father was one of the best harness makers in the area Mr Braille also made reins, saddles and collars for the villagers' horses He cut strips of leather and punched holes in the leather with sharp tools However, one day he decided to punch a hole in a piece of leather just like his father did He grabbed the tool and tried to push it through the leather The tool slipped from his hand and flew up and into his left eye His eye was hurt He got an infection The wound got infected, and the infection spread, and soon, Louis was blind in both eyes He attended school but all he could was listening By the age of 10 he got a scholarship to the Royal Institution for Blind Youth in Paris He continued to excel in his studies and also began playing the piano and organ The same year Braille entered the school, Captain Charles Barbier invented sonography, or night writing, a system of embossed symbols (standing out from the surface) used by soldiers to communicate silently at night on the battlefield Louis trimmed Barbier's 12 dots into 6, ironed out the system by the time he was 15, then published the first-ever braille book in 1829 But did he stop there? No way! In 1837, he added symbols for math and music Braille began to spread worldwide in 1868, when a group of British men, now known as the Royal National Institute for the Blind, took up the cause Now practically every country in the world uses braille Braille books have double-sided pages, which saves a lot of space Braille signs help blind people get around in public spaces And, most important, blind people can communicate independently, without needing print  ... the cause Now practically every country in the world uses braille Braille books have double-sided pages, which saves a lot of space Braille signs help blind people get around in public spaces... silently at night on the battlefield Louis trimmed Barbier's 12 dots into 6, ironed out the system by the time he was 15, then published the first-ever braille book in 1829 But did he stop there?... His eye was hurt He got an infection The wound got infected, and the infection spread, and soon, Louis was blind in both eyes He attended school but all he could was listening By the age of 10