Louis Braille was born near Paris, France. He was a very smart child. He liked to play with his father’s work tools. One day, when he was four, a sharp tool went into his left eye. An infection started and went to both eyes. He was unlucky. A few weeks later, Louis was blind.
At age ten, Louis went to a school for blind children in Paris. One day a French soldier, Charles Barbier, visited the school .Barbier invented a system of night-reading. This system used dots for the letters of the alphabet. Soldiers used this system in time of war .Babier thought this system could help blind people to read.
Barbier’s system was difficult, but it gave Louis an idea. He made barbier’s system easier. By age fifteen, his new system was ready! Now he wanted blind schools to use his system. He was unlucky again. The schools did not want his system. Louis died in 1852 at age forty-three. Two years after he died, the blind schools began to use his system.
Today we call this system Braille after Louis Braille. His system is used for all languages, and for math, science, writing music, and computer for the blind.