Louis Braille

Louis Braille was born in France in 1809. His father had a small business making leather goods.One day, Louis went into his father's workshop to cut some leather. Suddenly the knife slipped and hit him in the eye. An infection soon spread to his other eye, and Louis went completely blind.

At ten, Louis entered a school for the blind. One day his class went to visit a special exhibit. Here Louis learned about a speacial military code, which was made up of raised letters written on very thick paper.

Louis decided to write in the same way so blind people could "read" with their fingers. However, it was very difficult to feel the difference between letters. Instead, Braille developed his own system using a series of six dots. Today, Louis Braille's system is used around the world.