Louis Braille

Hello! My name is Louis Braille. When I was a little boy living in a small town in France, I loved to watch my father make things out of leather. One day, on January 4th, 1809, I was born. When I was three years old, I had an accident while I was playing, and after a little while, my eyes couldn't see the world around me anymore. But that was okay! I still loved to listen to the birds sing, smell the yummy bread from the bakery, and use my hands to feel and learn about everything. My family loved me very much, and I was a very curious and happy boy.

When I was ten years old, I went to a special school in a big city called Paris. I wanted to read books more than anything! The books at my school had big letters that you could feel, but they were very slow to read. One day, a man showed us a secret code made of raised dots that soldiers used to read in the dark. It gave me a super-duper idea! What if I made a simpler code with just six little dots? I worked and worked, using a small tool to poke dots into paper. I made a dot pattern for every letter of the alphabet. A, B, C... all in tiny bumps I could feel with my fingertips!

My little dot system worked! For the first time, I could read as fast as I could think. I could write letters and stories, too. Soon, other people who couldn't see learned my dot alphabet. Today, it’s called Braille, named after me! My idea helps people all over the world read books, use computers, and learn about our amazing world. It shows that even a small idea from a little boy can grow up to light up the whole world.