How did Braille come into use?

The Braille alphabet, which facilitates the life of the visually impaired, was invented in 1821 by Louis Braille. Braille himself was also blind. In 1813, Braille, who lost his left eye as a result of an accident in his father's shoe workshop when he was just four years old, lost his other eye in a short time due to the inflammation. At the age of seven, Braille learned a set of auditory information by taking a lesson from an educator named Jacques Palluy. 

Later, Palluy asked a teacher friend to enroll Braille in her school and study with the students who saw it. Thus, Braille started school and learned how to tackle difficulties as well as obtaining various information. After two years, Braille enrolled in the only school for the visually impaired in Paris, with the advice of Palluy. In the school, where the eight-centimeter long raised letter system was used for the visually impaired to feel, the students had a hard time learning to read and write. So much so that it took a long time to read even a small manual in this system. Unsatisfied with this situation, Braille started her studies to find a better method. 

When Braille was 12 years old, he visited an officer school called Charles Barbier. Barbier had designed a system called “night writing” so that soldiers could read messages without needing light and talking to each other. This system consisted of 12 bouncy dots where various sounds were represented in code form. Braille worked on this unused system because it was quite complicated for the army and developed a six-point system with two parallel columns with three points each. The system, which can be written with the help of a needle on a paper and where the letters, numbers, conjunctions and punctuation marks of the alphabet can be specified, made it easier for the visually impaired to learn to read and write, as it allows them to easily feel the "letters" under their fingers. 

Braille, who later taught at the school where he studied, also wrote books in accordance with the alphabet he developed. The first book, written in accordance with the Braille alphabet, was published in 1827.