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Louis Braille Facts & Worksheets

Louis Braille was a French educator and inventor of a system of reading and writing for people with visual impairments. This system is called Braille and is still used today.

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Louis Braille was a French educator and inventor of a system of reading and writing for people with visual impairments. This system is called Braille and is still used today.

See the fact file below for more information on Louis Braille or alternatively, you can download our 19-page Louis Braille worksheet pack to utilize within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

Louis Braille

  • For many years, blind people were restricted from actively participating in society due to a lack of access to written types of data until he devised a reading and writing system for the visually impaired based on a six-dot tactile.
  • When he was studying, he was able to learn to read by tracing embossed letters with his fingers on specially made books.
  • Retired Army Captain Charles Barbier told them about a method of communication used by soldiers that inspired his invention.
  • He never witnessed the fruits of his labor because the Royal Institute for the Blind, where he taught, adopted the Braille System two years after he died.

Early Life

  • On January 4, 1809, he was born. His father, Simon-Rene, ran a successful business as a leather producer and horse tack maker on their three-hectare property.
  • He found happiness as a toddler playing in his father’s workshop. He met with an accident when he was three years old. While attempting to punch holes in a piece of leather with an awl, the tool passed through the leather and into one of his eyes.
  • They attempted to restore the eye, but no treatment was successful. The wound became infected, and he began to lose vision in his other eye. He survived the infection but could only be seen with one eye.
  • He completely lost sight in both eyes when he was five years old. He used to wonder why it was always dark without realizing he had lost his sight.
  • His parents made extra efforts for him to be raised normally.
  • He was given canes by his father, which he used to gain familiarity with the village and its paths.
  • He was an intelligent boy, and the local teachers and priests were impressed with him, so he was accommodated with higher education despite his impairment.

Education

  • In February 1819, his intelligence enabled him to attend the Royal Institute for Blind Youth, one of the world’s first schools for visually impaired children.
  • Even though the school was underfunded at the time, it provided a stable environment for its students to learn and interact with one another.
  • Valentin Hauy, the school’s founder, devised a system for teaching blind children to read. Books with embossed Latin letters on heavy paper were used.
  • Hauy books were extremely useful in assisting him in his despair over the lack of necessary information that is usually stored in books. The complexity of Latin letters made it impossible for blind children to write.
  • He performed well in school and completed the curriculum, so he was asked to stay on as a teacher’s aide instead.
  • He was promoted to full professorship in 1833. He stayed in the institute teaching history, geometry and algebra.
  • He also became a professional cello and organ player with the instructions of Jean-Nicholas Marrigues. Because of his talent, he played the organ in various churches throughout France.

Braille System

  • Charles Barbier, the inventor of the embossed writing system used by soldiers, paid a visit to their school in 1821. He explained how the soldiers write their messages. From this, he saw its similarity to blind people writing messages or information.
    • It entailed writing a message on heavy paper using dots and dashes punched with a sharp tool. The soldiers must do so without using light or making any noise so that their enemy cannot find them.
    • It included a code made up of up to twelve dots in two columns that could be deciphered using fingers.
  • He was determined to discover a way to allow the blind to read and write that would cross the gap in communication between them and the sighted.
    • He said, “Access to communication in the widest sense is access to knowledge, and that is vitally important for us if we [the blind] are not to go on being despised or patronized by condescending sighted people. We do not need pity, nor do we need to be reminded we are vulnerable. We must be treated as equals – and communication is the way this can be brought about.”
  • He worked tirelessly to develop his desired system, which he completed by 1824.
  • He improved Barbier’s system and simplified its design.
  • He used six dots instead of twelve and made uniform columns for each letter.
  • In 1829, he published his system, which used dots and dashes like Barbier’s.
  • He published the second edition of his system in 1837 after discovering the difficulty dashes caused in reading.
  • The smaller cells he designed to allow the letters to be recognized even through a single finger touch.
  • He offered the school sets of slate and stylus tools made from two metal strips soldered together to form a stylus area.
  • It was also used in musical notations, and he used it in his first book, Method of Writing Words, Music, and Plain Songs by Means of Dots, for Use by the Blind and Arranged for Them, which was printed using the Hauy system.
  • The New Method for Representing by Dots was published in 1839. He called it decapoint and designed it to be readable even by blind people. He devised a new grill to be used over the paper to reproduce the standard alphabet.

Later Life

  • Even though he had a good reputation in the institution, his writing system was not officially taught during his lifetime because Hauy’s successors were not interested in changing the school’s established methods.
  • Dr. Alexandre Rene Pignier, the school’s headmaster, was fired after translating a history book into braille.
  • His health had never been stable, even as a child, and it deteriorated as he grew older.
  • He had a respiratory illness that was most likely tuberculosis.
  • His illness forced him to resign from teaching at the age of 40.
  • He was admitted to the Royal Institution’s infirmary and died on January 6, 1852.

Legacy

  • Several visually impaired students demanded that his system be implemented in the school. As a result, the institute adopted it in 1854.
  • His invention spread throughout France, and in 1873, a conference of teachers for the blind recognized his system after Dr. Thomas Rhodes Armitage supported it. Following that, it grew in popularity.
  • Schools officially adopted the system for the visually impaired across the United States in 1916.
  • A universal code for the system was formalized in 1932.
  • Braille variations such as braille computer terminals, email delivery services, and a mathematical and scientific notation adoption known as Nemeth Braille are being developed as technology advances.
  • Braille variations such as braille computer terminals, email delivery services, and a mathematical and scientific notation adoption known as Nemeth Braille are being developed as technology advances.
  • His childhood home in Coupvray was included in the list of historic buildings and houses as the Louis Braille Museum. A town square where a large monument of him was displayed was also named after him, Braille Square.
  • His ashes were reburied in the Pantheon in Paris, but his hands were left behind and buried near his home.

Louis Braille Worksheets

This is a fantastic bundle which includes everything you need to know about Louis Braille across 19 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use Louis Braille worksheets that are perfect for teaching students about Louis Braille, who was a French educator and inventor of a system of reading and writing for people with visual impairments. This system is called Braille and is still used today.

Complete List Of Included Worksheets

  • Louis Braille Facts
  • His Timeline
  • His Legacy
  • Six Dots
  • The Six-dotted System
  • Decoding Messages I
  • Decoding Messages II
  • The Death Effect I
  • The Death Effect II
  • My Invention I
  • My Invention II

Frequently Asked Questions

How did Louis Braille become blind?

He found happiness as a toddler playing in his father’s workshop. He met with an accident when he was three years old. While attempting to punch holes in a piece of leather with an awl, the tool passed through the leather and into one of his eyes.

What did Louis Braille discover?

Charles Barbier, the inventor of the embossed writing system used by soldiers, paid a visit to their school in 1821. He explained how the soldiers write their messages. From this, he saw its similarity to blind people writing messages or information.

What was Louis Braille’s disability?

He completely lost sight in both eyes when he was five years old. He used to wonder why it was always dark without realizing he had lost his sight.

When did Louis Braille invent the Braille system?

He worked tirelessly to develop his desired system, which he completed by 1824.

Who invented blind?

Louis Braille was a blind inventor of the Braille System, which was named after him.

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Use With Any Curriculum

These worksheets have been specifically designed for use with any international curriculum. You can use these worksheets as-is, or edit them using Google Slides to make them more specific to your own student ability levels and curriculum standards.

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