The Development and Future of Braille I By Abigail Poh Lin Xian
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| Illustration by @charlottekaix |
Throughout history, blind or visually impaired individuals have had to use alternative ways to read, write, and understand the world around them. They would use their fingers to touch raised letters that made up full words on paper, but this was a very slow and inefficient process that inhibited their reading speed and potential. Writing was even more challenging; one method involved using stamps that contained pins in the shape of a letter, which would be pressed into a sheet of paper one by one to form a word. Clearly, this process was very draining and time-consuming, severely impeding one’s ability to communicate.
You have probably heard of Braille, the landmark invention that enabled widespread communication among blind populations. But before there was Braille, there was its predecessor, Night Writing, created by Charles Barbier. He devised a system of 12 dots clustered into a group called cells, with different combinations of dots in a cell representing a letter. Interestingly, a common myth has persisted around his invention. Many believed he created this system for soldiers to communicate at night, when in reality he simply wanted to devise a new way for the blind to read and write.
Night Writing was used in the Royal Institution for Blind Youth, the school that Louis Braille attended as a student. When he was just three years old, Braille’s eyes were severely injured in an accident, causing an infection that led to lifelong blindness. He was intrigued by the possibilities of Night Writing, but found that it was too inconvenient in practice. Human fingertips could not feel all twelve dots at once, making reading long pages of text inefficient. Inspired by the framework of the system, however, he spent his teenage years refining it carefully. The end result was a much simpler system of 6 dots arranged in a domino pattern, which could easily be understood with a single touch. Reading could be done much more easily since the finger would move from one cell of dots to another quickly. Amazingly, Braille had figured his system out by the age of 15, and while further refinements were made in the following years, the basic framework that is used by millions today remains unchanged.
Braille’s system was initially only accepted by his fellow students, who understood its value and practicality. He later developed additional signs for mathematical symbols and musical notations. It took many decades for Braille to become a widespread tool; Braille died in 1852, two years before his system was declared the official system of communication for blind individuals by the French authorities. In 1932, a standard Braille code for English-speaking countries was set by various agencies for the blind. While he never lived to see just how widespread his invention would become, his legacy lives on as Braille is now used all across the world, having been adapted to almost all languages.
For visually impaired and blind individuals, Braille is more than a communication tool — it has enabled them to learn in school, enjoy reading just as sighted people do, and be able to grow their careers. In addition, Braille was instrumental in standardizing music notations, something incredibly valuable to the blind as music has a heightened importance as a form of self-expression. As technology continues to evolve, Braille has adapted alongside it — digital Braille readers are now frequently used for both work and leisure purposes. While other options for reading have arisen, such as screen readers, audiobooks, or specialized devices that convert text into speech, Braille remains a universal communication method that has stood the test of time for the blind community.
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