People who changed our educational system-light from the tunnels for blinds - Part I, Louis Braille-20/08/2010

20/08/2010

People who changed our educational system - Part I, Louis Braille

Louis Braille devised the Braille system in 1821. Almost two centuries later, 11 languages in India have phonetically derived the six-dot system enabling thousands of blind people learn to read and write in their own language.



Louis Braille

The spirit of fighting the odds of life, most aptly, stemmed from the valour of no one else but Napoleon Bonaparte. Charles Barbier de la Serre was a Captain of the French army When Napoleon asked his men to create secret codes for soldiers to communicate silently and during night. Barbier came up with "Ecriture Nocturne". Translated as 'Night Writing', Barbier's idea was rejected for the complexity of learning it.



Later, in 1821, Barbier met Braille at the National Institute for the Blind, Paris. Braille thought it could be a great idea to use a similar system for the blind. It did not take him much time to tweak Barbier's idea and device a six-dot system, using which the blind could read by rolling the fingers over characters made up of an arrangement of embossed points.

How does Braille work?



So, how does Braille work? Take the English alphabet. Braille has 26 signs for 26 letters, and 11 signs for punctuations. Each sign is a combination of six dots, arranged in two columns vertically, like 'point 6' in a game of dice (see image above). The dots are numbered from 1 to 6. Every letter has a permutation. For eg., letter 'A' is marked with one embossed point on dot 1, and 'Z' is a combination of dots 1-3-5-6. From there, it is very much like English. And a blind student rolls his fingers over a sheet of Braille signs to read.

Bharati Braille



11 languages used in India are now available in Braille.

In India, however, the Braille system had a bigger challenge: local languages, which are essentially phonetic in nature. But the six-dot system could contain all letters of Indian languages, because it could have 63 combinations of embossed points.

So, in 1951, some scholars examined the possibility of creating a phonetically derived system using the same six-dot method for languages of the Subcontinent. The result was Bharati Braille, a system that is accepted even in Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Today, a blind person can read and write in Sanskrit, Hindi, Gurmukhi, Gujarati, Bengali, Oriya, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Urdu and Sinhala.

The man named Braille



Arwa Daher uses a Braille system typewriter in her classroom.

The light he shone on the millions of blind people around the world still makes the name Braille shine. Louis Braille lost the sight of his left eye at age 3, when he accidentally poked it with a stitching awl. He lost the other eye to sympathetic ophthalmia, a condition that develops from an injury to one eye. He joined the National Institute for the Blind in Paris at age 10. He went on to become a good player of cello and organ. Braille later developed the six-dot system to include mathematics and music.

Braille went on to become a good teacher. However, his system was not implemented among students during his lifetime. In, 1854, two years after he died of tuberculosis at age 43, the system was officially recognised in France.

Braille system today



A blind boy uses a Braille system keyboard in a classroom.

Almost all blind schools use Braille today. Braille texts are printed using a Braille embosser. Though the technique was cumbersome initially, technology has made it possible to print 800 Braille letters in a second. Most Braille embossers need special paper. Copies of a Braille document can be made with a device called thermoform. Today, an 8-dot system is used instead of the 6-dot. A total of 256 combinations are available now, extending the scope of the system. A study says 70 per cent blind who have studied are employed, when only 30 per cent of those who have not have got a job.

Source: India Syndicate
Image source: Reuters