Braille
Sistema Braille
- Date
- 1824-1829 · confidence high
- Place
- Paris (Royal Institution for Blind Youth), France
- Credited to
- Louis Braille
- People
- 👤 Louis Braille1809–1852
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What it is
A tactile alphabet of raised six-dot cells, readable with the fingertip and writable with a stylus, created by Braille at the age of 15 from Charles Barbier's military 'night writing'. It gave blind people independent reading and writing.
Published in 1829 and refined in 1837; it was not officially adopted by the Institution until 1854, two years after Braille's death.
What it led to
- Literacy and education for blind people
- Braille presses and accessible libraries
- Adaptations for mathematics, music and every language
- Accessibility technologies (braille displays, signage)
Built on
- Barbier's night writing (1821)
- Valentin Haüy's embossed letters (1786)
Made possible
- Braille music1829
- Braille typewriter (Perkins Brailler, 1951)
- Electronic braille displays