History Louis Braille* PPT.pptx.pdf

This PPT about Louis Braille and how literacy for persons who are blind was invented. His history is a dynamic one leading to educational access and better quality living for person who are blind.

1. Louis Braille
by: Elia Avilez
Belize, CA

2. Louis Braille
•Louis Braille was born in 1809 in the little town of
Coupvray, France.
•His parents were Simon-Rene’ and Monique Braille.
•His father was the saddle and harness maker in the
village of Coupvray.
•He was the youngest of four children.

3. The Accident
•When Louis was a little boy he loved to
watch his father work.
•His father told him never to touch his tools.
•When Louis was only three years old, he
stabbed his right eye with one of his
father’s tools.
•Infection spread to his other eye and Louis
became completely blind.

4. The Royal Institute for Blind Youth
•When Louis was ten years old he was sent to
attend The Royal Institute for Blind Youth in
Paris, France.
•This was the first school for blind children.
•Later he became a teacher at the school.

5. Louis, The Student
•Louis studied history, grammar, arithmetic, and
geography.
•His favorite thing was music and he was naturally
gifted.
•He learned to play the piano and organ by ear.
•At the end of each school year Louis
won prizes in academics and music.

6. Embossing
•Some of Louis Braille’s first lessons were in
embossing.
•Embossing is a system of reading and writing where
large letters of the alphabet are pressed into thick
sheets of waxed paper. The raised impressions on the
other side of the paper could be read by tracing their
outlines with a finger.
•The problem with embossing was that one page of
embossed print contained only a few sentences so
embossed books were too big to be carried around and
expensive to print. Also, outside of the school,
embossed books were hard to find.

7. Sonography
•In 1821 Charles Barbier, a captain in the French Army,
spoke to the students at Louis’ school.
• He had invented a system for soldiers to communicate
at night without a sound.
•It was called sonography or night writing.
•He thought his invention could be useful to the blind.

8. Louis Braille’s Invention
•Louis and his classmates were very excited about
Barbier’s invention, but soon they found that it had
many problems and was too hard.
•Between the ages of 13 and 16, Louis used Barbier’s
idea to create his own system using raised dots.
•Finally, Louis discovered that the problem with
Barbier’s system was that his symbols were based on
sounds and there were too many sounds in the French
language.
•He changed his symbols to represent letters of the
alphabet and invented a simple code that allowed him
to represent any letter of the alphabet within the
space of a fingertip.

9. Louis Braille’s Original French Alphabet

10. The plaque on the outside of the home Louis Braille was
born in reads; “In this house on January 4, 1809 was born
Louis Braille the inventor of the system of writing in raised
dots for use by the blind. HE OPENED THE DOORS OF
KNOWLEDGE TO ALL THOSE WHO CANNOT SEE.”