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{{short description|French educator and inventor of the Braille system (1809–1852)}}
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| birth_date = {{birth date|1809|1|4|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Coupvray]], France[[First French Empire]]
| death_date = {{death date and age|1852|1|6|1809|1|4|df=y}}
| death_place = Paris, France[[Second French Republic]]
| resting_place = {{ubl|[[Panthéon]], Paris|Coupvray}}
| resting_place_coordinates =
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'''Louis Braille''' ({{IPAc-en|b|r|eɪ|l}} {{respell|brayl}}; {{IPA-|fr|lwi bʁɑj|lang}}; 4 January 1809 – 6 January 1852) was a French educator and the inventor of a reading and writing system named after him, [[braille]], intended for use by [[Visual impairment|visually impaired]] people. His system is used worldwide and remains virtually unchanged to this day.
 
Braille was blinded at the age of three in one eye as a result of an accident with a [[stitching awl]] in his father's [[Horse harness|harness]] making shop. Consequently, an infection set in and spread to both eyes, resulting in total blindness.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.biography.com/scholar/louis-braille|title = Louis Braille| date=26 June 2020 }}</ref> At that time, there were not many resources in place for the blind, but he nevertheless excelled in his education and received a scholarship to France's [[Institut National des Jeunes Aveugles|Royal Institute for Blind Youth]]. While still a student there, he began developing a system of [[Touch|tactile]] code that could allow blind people to read and write quickly and efficiently. Inspired by a system invented by [[Charles Barbier]], Braille's new method was more compact and lent itself to a range of uses, including music. He presented his work to his peers for the first time in 1824, when he was fifteen years old.
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Braille was helped by Haüy's books, but he also despaired over their lack of depth: the amount of information retained in such books was necessarily minor. Because the raised letters were made in a complex artisanal process using wet paper pressed against copper wire, the children could not hope to "write" by themselves. So that the young Louis could send letters back home, Simon-René provided him with an alphabet made from bits of thick leather. It was a slow and cumbersome process, but the boy could at least trace the letters' outlines and write his first sentences.<ref>Kugelmass (1951), p. 48.</ref>
 
The handcrafted Haüy books all came in uncomfortable sizes and weights for children. They were laboriously constructed, very fragile, and expensive to obtain: when Haüy's school first opened, it had a total of three books.<ref name=Kugelmass3738/> Nonetheless, Haüy promoted their use with zeal. To him, the books presented a system which would be readily approved by educators and indeed they seemed – toat the sightedtime – to offer the best achievable results. Braille and his schoolmates, however, could detect all too well the books' crushing limitations.<ref name=Kugelmass3738/> Nonetheless, Haüy's efforts still provided a breakthrough achievement – the recognition of the [[sense of touch]] as a workable strategy for sightless reading. The Haüy system's main drawback, in the opinion of at least one author, was that it was "talking to the fingers with the language of the eye".<ref name=Farrell96>Farrell, p. 96.</ref>
 
===Teacher and musician===
Braille read
Braille read Haüy's books repeatedly, and he was equally attentive to the oral instruction offered by the school. He proved to be a highly proficient student and, after he had exhausted the school's curriculum, he was immediately asked to remain as a teacher's aide. By 1833, he was elevated to a full professorship. For much of the rest of his life, Braille stayed at the Institute where he taught history, geometry, and algebra.<ref name=Farrell98/><ref name=Olmstrom>Olmstrom, pp. 161–162.</ref>
 
Braille's ear for music enabled him to become an accomplished cellist and [[Organ (music)|organist]] in classes taught by [[Jean-Nicolas Marrigues]]. Later in life, his musical talents led him to play the organ for churches all over France. A devout [[Catholic Church|Catholic]],<ref>Mellor, p. 5.</ref> Braille held the position of organist in Paris at the [[Church of Saint-Nicholas-des-Champs, Paris|Church of Saint-Nicolas-des-Champs]]<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.uquebec.ca/musique/orgues/france/snicolascp.html |title=Église Saint-Nicolas-des-Champs |language=fr, en |year=2011 |publisher=Universite du Quebec |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120224132503/http://www.uquebec.ca/musique/orgues/france/snicolascp.html |archive-date=24 February 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref> from 1834 to 1839, and later at the [[Church of Saint-Vincent-de-Paul, Paris|Church of Saint-Vincent-de-Paul]].<ref>Mellor, p. 78.</ref>
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===Design===
Braille worked tirelessly on his ideas, and his system was largely completed by 1824, when he was fifteen years old.<ref name=Farrell98/><ref name=Olmstrom/> He innovated onreworked Barbier's system by simplifying its form and maximizing its efficiency. He made uniform columns for each letter, and he reduced the maximum of twelve raised dots to six. [[1829 braille|His first version]] used both dots and dashes. He published this version in 1829, but by the second edition in 1837 discarded the dashes because they were too difficult to read. Crucially, Braille's smaller cells were capable of being recognized as letters with a single touch of a finger.<ref name=Farrell98/>
 
Braille created his own raised-dot system using Barbier's [[slate and stylus]] tools. Barbier had donated many sets of these tools to the school. By soldering two metal strips across the slate, heBraille created a secure area for the stylus which would keep the lines straight and readable.<ref name=Farrell98/>
 
By these modest means, Braille constructed a robust communication system. "It bears the stamp of genius," wrote Dr. Richard Slating French, former director of the [[California School for the Blind]], "like the Roman alphabet itself".<ref>Bickel, p. 185.</ref>
 
===Musical adaptation===
The system was soon extended to include [[braille music|braille musical notation]]. Passionate about his own music, Braille took meticulous care in its planning to ensure that the musical code would be "flexible enough to meet the unique requirements of any instrument".<ref>Mellor, p. 82.</ref> In 1829, he published the first book about his system, ''Method of Writing Words, Music, and Plain SongsPlainsong by Means of Dots, for Use by the Blind and Arranged for Them''. Ironically this book was first printed by the raised letter method of the Haüy system.<ref name=Farrell99/><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.avh.asso.fr/rubriques/actualites/actualites.php?var=titre&infos=432 |title=Louis Braille 1809–1852 : un génie français |language=fr |year=2011 |publisher=Valentin Haüy Association |access-date=15 February 2014 }}</ref>
 
===Publications===
Braille produced several written works about braille and as general education for the blind. ''Method of Writing Words, Music, and Plain SongsPlainsong...'' (1829) was revised and republished in 1837;<ref name=AFBbooks>{{Cite web |url=http://www.afb.org/louisbraillemuseum/braillegallery.asp?FrameID=185 |title=Books in Braille |year=2013 |publisher=American Foundation for the Blind |website=Afb.org |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201035512/http://www.afb.org/louisbraillemuseum/braillegallery.asp?FrameID=185 |archive-date=1 December 2017 |url-status=live }}</ref> his mathematics guide, ''Little Synopsis of Arithmetic for Beginners'', entered use in 1838;<ref name=AFBbooks/> and his monograph ''New Method for Representing by Dots the Form of Letters, Maps, Geometric Figures, Musical Symbols, etc., for Use by the Blind'' was first published in 1839.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EarDmAEACAAJ |title=''Nouveau procede pour representer des points la forme meme des letters, les cartes de geographie, les figures de geometrie, les caracteres de musiques, etc., a l'usage des aveugles'' |author=Braille, Louis |year=1839 |publisher=Institution royale des jeunes aveugles |language=fr }}</ref> Many of Braille's original printed works remain available at the Braille birthplace museum in Coupvray.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.culture.gouv.fr/public/mistral/museo_fr?ACTION=CHERCHER&FIELD_1=REF&VALUE_1=M0373 |title=Maison Natale de Louis Braille |year=2013 |publisher=Culture-Acte 2 |website=Culturecommunication.gouv.fr |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170630160325/http://www.culture.gouv.fr/public/mistral/museo_fr?ACTION=CHERCHER&FIELD_1=REF&VALUE_1=M0373 |archive-date=30 June 2017 |url-status=live }}</ref>
 
===Decapoint===
''New Method for Representing by Dots...'' (1839) put forth Braille's plan for a new writing system with which blind people could write letters that could be read by sighted people.<ref name=AFBdeca>{{Cite web |url=http://www.afb.org/louisbraillemuseum/braillemediaviewer.asp?FrameID=186#main |title=Braille Invents His Code: Louis Invents Decapoint |year=2013 |publisher=American Foundation for the Blind |website=Afb.org |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170803001017/http://www.afb.org/louisbraillemuseum/braillemediaviewer.asp?FrameID=186#main |archive-date=3 August 2017 |url-status=dead |access-date=11 August 2012 }}</ref> Called ''[[decapoint]]'', the system combined his method of dot-punching with a new specialized grill which Braille devised to overlay the paper. When used with an associated number table (also designed by Braille and requiring memorization), the grill could permit a blind writer to faithfully reproduce the standard alphabet.<ref>Weygand, p. 288.</ref>
 
After the introduction of decapoint, Braille gave assistance toassisted his friend [[Pierre-François-Victor Foucault]], who was working oninvented the development of his Raphigraphe, a device that couldallowed embossfor lettersmore in therapid mannercreation of aletters made with raised typewriterpoints. Foucault's machine was hailed as a great success and was exhibited at the [[Exposition Universelle (1855)|World's Fair]] in Paris in 1855.<ref>Farrell, p. 121.</ref>
 
==Later life==
Dr. Alexandre René Pignier, principal at the school, supported Braille's work and allowed the teaching of Braille's system. However, Pignier was forced out of his position in 1840 by an ambitious younger teacher, Pierre-Armand Dufau, who opposed the teaching of Braille at the school. Fortunately, another teacher, Joseph Guadet, supported Braille, and the system was reintroduced in 1844, at the time of the opening of a new school building on the Boulevard des Invalides.<ref>Mellor, pp. 98-102.</ref>
Although Braille was admired and respected by his pupils, his writing system was not taught at the institute during his lifetime. The successors of Valentin Haüy, who had died in 1822, showed no interest in altering the established methods of the school,<ref name=Farrell99/> and indeed, they were actively hostile to its use. Dr. Alexandre René Pignier, headmaster at the school, was dismissed from his post after he had a history book translated into braille.<ref>{{cite book|last=Wace|first=Barbara|author-link=Barbara Wace|title=Louis Braille|author2=John Peaty |page=128}} in {{cite book|title=Girl Annual No. 9|year=1961|publisher=Longacre Press|editor=Clifford Makins }}</ref>
 
Braille had always been a sickly child, and his condition worsened in adulthood. A persistent respiratory illness, long believed to be [[tuberculosis]], dogged him. Despite the lack of a cure at the time, Braille lived with the illness for 16 years. By the age of 40, he was forced to relinquish his position as a teacher. When his condition reached mortal danger, he was admitted to the infirmary at the Royal Institution, where he died in 1852, two days after he turned 43.<ref name="Marsan"/><ref name=Weygand289>Weygand, p. 289.</ref>
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Statues and other memorials to Louis Braille can be found around the world. He has been commemorated in postage stamps worldwide,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Nuessel |first=Frank |date=November 1985 |title=Louis Braille Helped the Sightless to See |journal=[[The American Philatelist]] |volume=99 |pages=1005–1007 }}</ref> and the [[asteroid]] [[9969 Braille]] was named for him in 1992.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Schmadel |first=Lutz D. |author-link=Lutz D. Schmadel |author2=International Astronomical Union |title=Dictionary of minor planet names |year=2003 |publisher=Springer-Verlag |location=Berlin; New York |isbn=978-3-540-00238-3 |page=715 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KWrB1jPCa8AC&pg=PA715 }}</ref> The ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]'' lists him among the "100 Most Influential Inventors Of All Time".<ref>{{Cite book |title=The 100 Most Influential Inventors of All Time |editor-last=McKenna |editor-first=Amy |year=2010 |publisher=Britannica Educational Publishing |location=New York |isbn=9781615300426 |pages=94–96 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GbmcAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA94 }}</ref>
 
A [[Google Doodle]] for Louis Braille's 197th birthday in 2006 was shown on Google's homepage, spelling "Google" in braille.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Louis Braille's 107th Birthday Doodle - Google Doodles |url=https://doodles.google/doodle/louis-brailles-107th-birthday/ |access-date=2024-08-17 |website=doodles.google |language=en}}</ref>
 
The 200th anniversary of Braille's birth in 2009 was celebrated throughout the world by exhibitions and symposiums about his life and achievements. Among the commemorations, Belgium and Italy struck 2-euro coins, India released a set of two commemorative coins (Rs 100 and Rs 2), and the USA struck a one dollar coin, all in Braille's honor.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.nbbmuseum.be/2009/10/2euro.htm |title=New 2-euro commemorative coin on display in the Museum |year=2009 |publisher=National Bank of Belgium |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171109070841/http://www.nbbmuseum.be/en/2009/10/2euro.htm |archive-date=9 November 2017 |url-status=dead |access-date=22 March 2011 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.thebrailroom.com/invented-brail/italy-2-euro-commemorative-coin-2009-louis-braille-wmv |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120402232025/http://www.thebrailroom.com/invented-brail/italy-2-euro-commemorative-coin-2009-louis-braille-wmv |archive-date=2 April 2012 |title=Italy 2 euro commemorative coin 2009 Louis Braille |year=2009 |publisher=Brailleroom }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.indianstampghar.com/2010/02/commemorative-coins-india-louis-braille/ |title=Commemorative Coins – India – Louis Braille |year=2010 |publisher=India Stamp Ghar |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171019081313/https://www.indianstampghar.com/2010/02/commemorative-coins-india-louis-braille/ |archive-date=19 October 2017 |url-status=liveusurped }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.usmint.gov/coins/coin-medal-programs/commemorative-coins/louis-braille-bicentennial |title=Louis Braille Bicentennial Silver Dollar |date=2019 |publisher=United States Mint |website=USmint.gov |access-date=7 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190708072711/https://www.usmint.gov/coins/coin-medal-programs/commemorative-coins/louis-braille-bicentennial |archive-date=8 July 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref>
 
[[World Braille Day]] is celebrated every year on Braille's birthday, 4 January, since 2019.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://nfb.org/blog/celebrate-world-braille-day-raising-awareness |title=Celebrate World Braille Day by Raising Awareness |date=2 January 2018 |publisher=National Federation of the Blind |website=Nfb.org |access-date=8 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190412190546/https://nfb.org/blog/celebrate-world-braille-day-raising-awareness |archive-date=12 April 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N18/448/71/PDF/N1844871.pdf|title=United Nations – Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 17 December 2018}}</ref>
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