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By Diane Forrest
Yesterday I wrote about the seeing eye dogs. Today, I want to let you know about another
tool used by the vision impaired to assist them with their daily lives. In 1809 Louis Braille was born. 43 years and 2 days later, he died, but not
before he created a reading system so that blind people would be able to place
their fingers over raised dots and read. When Louis was 3 years old, an
accident in his father's shop cause an
object to be tossed into his eye. His
wound became infected, and the infection spread to his other eye. By the time he was 5 years old, he was
blind. His parents took great pains to
raise him as a sighted child, teaching him how to navigate around the town
alone. He was "at peace" with
his disability. His bright and creative
mind impressed the local teachers and priests, and he was encouraged to seek
higher education.
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When he was of age, he went to school and learned to read
by tracing letters on heavily embossed pages.
These books were very heavy and hard to handle. According to Wikipedia.com, Braille was
determined to fashion a system of reading and writing that could bridge the
critical gap in communication between the sighted and the blind. In his own
words: "Access to communication in the widest sense is access to
knowledge, and that is vitally important for us if we [the blind] are not to go
on being despised or patronized by condescending sighted people. We do not need
pity, nor do we need to be reminded we are vulnerable. We must be treated as
equals – and communication is the way this can be brought about."
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In 1821 he learned of a type of communication used by the
French army called night writing. It was
made of dots and dashes that could be read by soldiers tracing their fingers
over the pages. This method was too
complicated to learn and understand, so Louis devised his own method. When he was just 15 years old he began
working on his own system by using the same tool that cause his blindness. His work was published in 1839, and the
rest...is history. He contracted tuberculosis
and died, 2 days after his 43rd birthday at home with his family.
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This is National Braille Literacy Month. ehow.com has some suggestions on how to
participate in this great achievement. They
include:
1.
Celebrate the birthday of Louis Braille-
see if you can learn to spell his name in Braille on the birthday cake.
2.
Talk to your children about blindness.
3.
Blindfold yourself and see how well you can
manage to move through your own home with someone guiding you. Keep it up and
see how much you improve.
4.
Check out a book in Braille in the library
and study it. Show it to your kids.
5.
Learn to write your own name in the Braille
alphabet.
