helping the blind to read and write

Louis Braille was born in 1809 in a town near Paris. Louis was a bright boy, but he had a very serious disability; he was blind. Even so, he could get around the town by using a cane without getting mixed up. He counted the exact number of the taps that he made to reach the road, the store, and the other places where he had to go. He got along very well, but he was disgusted that he couldn’t read and write like other children. "Why should this have happened to me?" he asked accusingly. "How wonderful it would be if I could see the world around me" he said.

When Louis was ten years old, his parent sent him to school for the blind.

He was good at all subjects and even learned to play the organ .but none of these made him happy .one reason was that the blind were thought in a way that was much too slow for a quick mind like his.

The alphabet was taught by placing twigs in the shapes of letters on a table. Then the teacher guided the blind child's hands over these letters and explained what each one meant. Soon the child could read words and sentences with his fingers .he could then read raised cloth letters pasted on paper .but with this method, even a short story filled many big books.

When Braille finished school, he knew what he wanted to do. "There should be a faster way to learn to read and write "he said to himself,"I will find a way"

Braille thought that a code would be easier .but what kind of code? a special symbol for every word in  the dictionary ? Shapes like squares or triangles for each of the letters of the alphabet? That might be as hard as reading letters. Braille tried many different kinds of codes, but for years he could do nothing in particular.

Then he found the answer in a story   in the newspaper about a new signal code used by soldiers to or writes in the dark."If this were true "Braille thought,"obviously the same code could be used a blind man .i should've thought about this earlier ", he told his friend. Next morning Braille went to visit the man who had made the code, captain Charles Barbier . "We should have met previously" louis told him .barbier said he was glad to help. He showed Braille how he made bumps on a sheet of paper with a awl .this made dots come through the other side of the paper .a certain combination of dotes would then mean a certain word.

Braille was filled with joy.  Apparently   punching holes in paper would be fast and easy. But there were still more things he had to do .first he had to find a way to make dotes. second, he had to figure out what combination of dots  should stand for each letter.

After a period of experimenting, he made different combinations of   bumps that would stand for different letters. Every letter in the alphabet, as well as every punctuation mark had its own combination.

This is the secret of the Braille system of writing and reading. It was a great invention and affected the lives of million of the blind people in society. It is possible now for the blind to read and write almost as fast as people who can see.

ILI ENGLISH SERIES