National Braille Literacy Month

Every January, the visually impaired and legally blind, their loved ones, and their advocates celebrate the revolutionary reading system Braille. January was chosen for this celebration because it is the birth month of the inventor of the system of raised dots Louis Braille, a French educator who was himself blind. In 1824, Braille, who was then just 15 years old, developed a system of raised dots that could be read by touch. He was inspired by a military code used by the French army that used raised dots and dashes to convey messages silently at night. Braille refined this system over the next few years, eventually developing a system of six raised dots that could represent the letters of the alphabet and other symbols. Braille's system quickly gained popularity among blind and visually impaired people, and he began to teach it to other students at the Royal Institute for Blind Youth in Paris, where he was a student and later a teacher. However, the system was initially met with skepticism by many educators, who believed that blind people should learn to read and write using the same methods as sighted people. Despite this resistance, Braille continued to refine and promote his system, and by the time of his death in 1852, it had become widely accepted throughout Europe. Today, braille is recognized as an essential tool for blind and visually impaired people around the world, and is used on everything from books and signs to computer displays and mobile phones.