when inspiration struck him. He soon developed a code for each letter of the alphabet,
with numbers and symbols like periods and question marks, all using no more than six
dots.
One great advantage of his system was that you could read each letter or symbol using
the tip of your finger. With practice, a reader could run his finger along a line and read
very quickly. The other big plus was that blind people using Braille’s system could write
as well as read. His system opened up a whole new world!
It took many years for the Braille system to take off, and its popularity was still spreading
when Louis died in 1852. Not many people can say that they invented an entire new
system of reading and writing, but Louis Braille did. What’s more, his system was
adopted around the world, and today is available in virtually every language that humans
speak.
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