[nfbmi-talk] An item of interest regarding Louis Braille

[Mary Ann Rojek]

Vatican issues first Braille stamp in honor of bicentenary of Louis Braille
Vatican City, November 5 (
CNA
) .- The Vatican post office has issued it's first ever Braille stamp to celebrate
the 200th Anniversary of the birth of Louis Braille, who created the universal reading
and writing system for the blind.
The stamps feature a portrait of Louis Braille, the inventor's name, the Vatican
City State and the price written in the raised dots of the Braille system. Valued
at $0.96 each, 300,000 stamps have been issued and will go on sale at the Vatican's
post offices near St. Peter's Basilica, according to the Canadian Press.
Born in France in 1809, Louis Braille was blinded in an accident at the age of four.
Despite this challenge, he insisted on attending school at the age of ten and was
accepted to the Institute of the Blind in Paris. He was instructed in the Huay method
for teaching the blind, which did not allow for any writing.
Braille became an instructor at the school at the young age of 18 and within two
years had developed a simpler and more intuitive learning method. He eventually expanded
his method to include musical notation.
Shortly after his death at the age of 43, France adopted his system and at the World
Congress of Education for the Blind in 1878, the Braille method was declared universal.
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