The history of the writing system for blind people began around 16 centuries ago. This time was marked when a blind Japanese scholar in the 4th century carved letters in wood and built a library large enough to store his works.

Many figures created various systems to help the blind learn to read and write to communicate in writing like people are known. Different people have devised various methods and types of writing to be able to make this happen. Here are some personages who influenced the development of a writing system used for the Blind until now.

Valentina Hauy

Valentin Hauy (1745-1822), the founder and director of the first school for the blind in the world named L'Institute Nationale des Jeunes Aveugles, managed to create embossed letters on thick paper that can be touched and read with the fingertips. The first published book to use this technique contained an essay on education for blind children in 1787.

The idea to produce these generated letters came about by chance while he taught Franqois Lesueur, his first student before the school was established by her officially.

William Moon

Dr. William Moon, a blind Englishman in 1845, created a system of raised letters that used the Roman alphabet, with some writing systems modified or simplified. The principle he used in making his writing system was that the embossed letters should be as similar as possible to their original form (the Roman alphabet). Still, they had to be easily recognized by touch.

In this Moon alphabet, eight letters remain the same, 14 letters are simplified, and five are designed entirely new by him. Most blind people have used the Moon system for quite a long time. This alphabet was still in use until the early 20th century.

Charles Barbier

The Braille writing system as we know it today stems from the raised dot system invented by Charles Barbier, an officer in the Napoleonic artillery. He got inspired to make this writing system during the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 by a cipher of raised dots and lines called "Night Writing." 

Louis Braille

The writing system that everyone finally uses until now, Braille, is taken from the name of its creator, Louis Braille. Braille was born on January 4, 1809, in Coupvray, France. He became blind due to an accident he experienced at age 3.

He liked Charles Barbier's idea of ​​using dots for writing for the blind, so after he met with Charles Barbier, Louis Braille tried to develop this writing to create writing suitable for the blind for about ten years. He tried to simplify and perfect the writing system he made so that anyone who needed it could easily use it.

In 1956, The World Council for the Welfare of the Blind (World Council for Welfare of the Blind) then made Louis Braille's house in Coupvray become a museum that is still operating and can be visited now.