Has anyone ever wondered how it feels to be blind? Imagine being blind, standing outside on a nice day without sight. No sight of the beautiful sky, nor the sun itself, only the feelings and sound. The hot sun, the gentle breeze, the grass and plants flowing in said breeze, all with only audio and touch. This is what it is like to be blind. To read, blind people used to have embossed books with embossed lettering. Embossed books and lettering are no longer used today, thanks to the work of Louis Braille, a blind French teacher at the National Institute for Blind Youth. To understand blindness, one must know the definition .
Blindness is a disability that affects many people all around the world. The definition most people might think when they hear about blindness is “cannot see anything at all” (Weiss, 5), and “inability to see at all” (Blindness Statistics). These are all correct definitions for blindness, however, there are other types of blindnesses. As stated before, there are other types of blindness. Legal blindness is one of them. Being legally blind means that a person cannot see at the normal sight range. To be considered legally blind, people’s sight range must be lower than twenty feet.
Legally blind’s meaning also differs from what source one looks at about blidness. The following definitions all are correct for “legally blind:” “Cannot see over twenty feet,” (Weiss 5), “significant vision loss,” and “trouble seeing, even when wearing eyeglasses or contacts. ” (“Blindness Statistics”). Therefore, all of those definitions describe blindness but describe a different type. Color blindness and legal blindness are both a type of blindnesses that have different effects. Color blindness prevents people from seeing color.
Although there are various definitions for blindness, the ymptoms are similar. Symptoms blindness can cause are not being able to see, or not able to see at all or very well, clouded eyes, and glaucoma. Glaucoma is a disease that can cause blindness. The following can be causes of blindness or injuries that could lead to blindness: An accident could happen. Accidents and injuries to your eyes can ruin your vision. Some people can also be born with any type of blindness. Some limitations are a person has no sight to explore what is around them, they may need a cane to get around certain places and obstacles, and they may need to be led around a new place.
As mentioned, there are different devices that can aid blindness such as a cane or a guide. Some include braille writing, sound, or touch. To write, the blind used to use embossed books and lettering. Embossed lettering is the letters that the sighted can see, except that the letters are raised so they can be felt. Reading was hard with embossed books because most of the time, and was a slow process. Now they have a new system called braille (Weiss 15) made by Louis Braille when he was just fifteen years of age. Braille is a system made up of six dots with different combinations for each letter.
A letter can be read with a fingertip, making reading easier and faster. There are many aids that include braille, such as the braille typewriter. Many other braille devices are sliding rulers, a styli, and a board to write on (Freedman 52-53). Louis Braille became completely blind at age 5. Louis Braille was three years old at the time he became blind in one eye. As an impressionable child, he wanted to be like his father Simon-Rene, a leather seller. One day, while his father was outside of the shop, Braille saw his father’s unattended tools.
Excited to be like him, he took an awl and pretended to be doing his father’s work. He jabbed at a stray piece of leather with the awl but to no avail. Braille was not strong enough to get through the leather, so he leaned in closer towards the stray leather as he attempted to break it. As he leaned in, the awl stabbed his left eye. His father came running into his shop and found Braille with an injured eye. He took him outside in search of help. Braille’s mother carried him to try and help. There was no doctor, so a healer attempted to heal Braille’s wound, but it did not work.
He was blinded in both eyes by infection from the dirty awl at age five (“Louis Braille”). Blindness did not affect him for the worse. His main setback was that he has no sight. His family would not allow him to help with chores around the house. Instead, they let him stay at home. Simon-Rene made a cane out of wood to help Braille get around the house. As a quick learner, he quickly found out how many taps away he was from a certain room. Braille still got to attend church. The priest, Jacques Palluy, saw how intelligent he was at his young age.
Father Palluy encouraged Braille to become smarter because he believed that he could help the world in many ways. Braille always wanted to learn, so when Father Palluy offered to educate him, Braille’s family agreed(Donaldson 12-14). Many people encouraged Louis on his quest for knowledge, He overcame blindness by not letting it set him back He wanted to learn all the time, which helped him greatly. He knew his way around familiar places, such as his house, with taps of his cane. He was quick to learn embossed lettering. It was hard to tell when a word stopped because there was no punctuation.
Getting places was not always an issue, though. Braille had friends from school that would walk him from his house to the school and back to his house after class (Weiss 46). Louis Braille made a revolutionary invention for the blind Louis Braille invented a new system of reading and writing for the blind. Unlike bulky embossed letters, these letters can be read with a fingertip with ease. Braille got his idea of his system from Charles Barbier, an army man who tried to create a way for soldiers to communicate at night. This system was called Night Writing, which uses dots and dashes to form words, and was rejected by the army.
Braille learned to read it, and saw how convenient it was, as well as its problems. Night Writing did not have any punctuation or numbers, so it was hard to tell when a sentence stopped. It also did not have any real letters, since the concept was based on sounds (“Louis Braille”). From then on, he, with his inspiration of creating a simpler way to read, worked on. He worked on it whenever he could, between classes, at home, basically wherever and whenever he was free. Eventually, he decided that twelve dots were too much for a fingertip, so he narrowed it down to six dots. With his new idea of an alphabet, he also began to have other ideas.
Dashes were difficult to write, so they were removed. He created his new alphabet with only six dots and no dashes. By the age of fifteen, it was completed (“Louis Braille’). Louis Braille was not only famous for creating braille. In addition to that, he was also a very popular teacher at the National Institute for Blind Youth. He was very popular among the students that he taught, as well as coworkers he taught along with (Donaldson 30). When he was in school, his teachers enjoyed having him as their student. Louis Braille also became famous for being a brilliant pianist and organist while he was growing up, for he had a keen ear for music.
As stated previously, he had many encouragers. His family and many others supported his ideas. In addition to his family, Dr. Andre Pignier (Freedman 35-36), Joseph Guadet (Freedman 67-68), Hyppolyte Colbalt (74), Gabriel Gauthier (74), Father Jacques Palluy (Donaldson 12-14), Antoine Becheret (Donaldson 15), Simon-Rene (13-14), and Dr. Sebastien Guillie (20) all encouraged him in many ways. Charles Barbier(“Louis Braille), Braille’s fellow students (Donaldson 30), and Marquis d’Orvilliers (Donaldson 17) helped him and encouraged him. With those many encouragers, he tried his best in life.
Many people also looked up to him. Dr. Andre Pignier helped as much as he could, he even called the government to ask if they would have braille as the official way of reading for blind instead of embossed lettering (Freedman 15) Louis Braille brought attention to this disability in a good way. He created a system of writing to help (Weiss 31). He attended the same school he taught in. After his death, his house was turned into a museum. Many people wanted to be like him. With Braille’s accomplishment every blind person was happy, and Braille’s friends and family were proud.
To conclude, Louis Braille was a very important person in his time and even now. He aspired to create a new system and achieved it, inspiring many people. Louis Braille is still looked up to by a great number of people. When he was alive, braille was only starting in a couple of schools. At age forty, when he died, braille still was not being used everywhere. After his death, his new reading and writing system for the blind has been made into good use. There is not a doubt that he is still one of the most inspiring and encouraging person in history.