Louis Braille

Louis Braille was born on January 4th, 1809 in Coupvray, France to Monique and Simon Braille. At the age of three Louis lost his sight in an accident involving one of his dad's sharp tool. The infection of the injury spread to the other eye, leaving Louis completely blind.

Despite his handicap, Braille propelled himself to the top of his elementary class. At the age of ten, Braille began his studies at the Royal Institution for Blind Youth in Paris. Here he was introduced to the raised-print system developed by the school's founder, Valentin Haüy. This system consisted of raised print letters and was recognized as too inefficient for Braille.

At the age of fifteen, Braille had developed the system that we know today as Braille, developing a 6-dot-cell based upon normal spelling. Like many geniuses at the time, Louis Braille’s accomplishments became widespread only after his death. He perfected the system in 1834, and published "Method of Writing Words, Music and Plain Song by Means of Dots, for Use by the Blind and Arranged by Them" to introduce his system to the world.