How Braille was invented | Moments of Vision 9 - Jessica Oreck

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Today, Braille is the universally accepted system of writing for the blind, translated into almost every language in almost every country across the globe. But it didn’t actually start out as a tool for the blind. Jessica Oreck details the surprising wartime origins of Braille.

Lesson and animation by Jessica Oreck.

In a Moment of Vision...

Early 1800s.

It's the middle of the Napoleonic Wars
in the middle of Europe,

and it's the middle of the night.

One Captain Charles Barbier
of Napoleon's army

is trying to relay a message
to one of his troops.

But sending written communications
to the front lines

can be deadly for the recipient.

Lighting a candle to read the missive can
give away their positions to the enemy.

In a moment of vision,

Barbier pokes a series of holes
into a sheet of a paper with his blade,

creating a coded message that can be
deciphered by fingertip,

even in the pitch black.

The merits of his so-called night writing
are never acknowledged by the military,

but in 1821, Barbier approaches the
Royal Institute for Blind Youth in Paris

in the hopes that they might find a use

for his innovative,
new communication method.

There, a precocious teen by the name
of Louis Braille does just that.

Louis spends the next several years
improving on Barbier's idea,

creating an organized alphabet
fitting into a six dot standardized cell.

The system catches on.

Today, Braille is the universally accepted
system of writing for the blind,

adapted for more than 130 languages.