UNESCO, World Blind Union and the world at large has joined the government of France to celebrate the Bicentenary birth of Louis Braille, on 4th January whose work has helped to improve the lives of the blind in the world.
To mark this memorable event, Educational Centre for the Blind and Visually Impaired (ECBVI) will celebrate with a scale of activities on 12th January which climax will be a demonstration with Perkins Brailler, hand frame.
Louis Braille was born in Coupvray, in Seine-et-Marne about 40 kilometers from Paris in 1809.
At a tender age he sustained an eye injury while playing with his father’s sandal-making tools and gradually lost his sight.
Despite being handicap, he attended the village school, where he stood out for his intelligence and exceptional memory.
His parents decided to send him to the Royal Institution for the Young Blind in Paris.
At the end of 1824, he put the finishing touches to his own alphabetical method after working on Charles Barbier de La Serre system of night writing which was originally devised for use in the dark by the army. He however died in 1852 after long term suffering of tuberculosis.
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