Impact

A Russian postage stamp in 1959 celebrating 150th anniversay of Louis Braille's birth.

(Credit: American Printing House for the Blind)

Louis Braille's six-dot cell method became successful internationally. The system of Braille provided the blind community an opportunity to experience a social, political, and cultural life by enabling them to see the world through their fingertips. This development led to special books and resources cultivated specifically for those who were visually impaired and eventually allowed for wide-spread education of people who were unable to learn traditionally. Aside from books and documents, Braille is seen on receipts, bills, menus, music notes, elevator buttons, prescription medicine, legal paperwork, etc.

Postage stamp created in 1975 in East Germany, celebrating Braille.

(Credit: Manfred Gottschall)

A reading room for the blind in 1897 that provided five-hundred braille books and music items.

(Credit: Library of Congress)

A mechanical braillewriter.

(Credit: Perkins School for Blind eLearning)

A high-tech Braille display that enables blind or visually-impaired users to interact with a computer.

(Credit: Perkins School for Blind eLearning)

Overtime, Braille has evolved into a universally accepted system of writing and reading for the blind that has adapted into nearly every language across the globe. In 2005, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization recognized the Braille system as a "vital language of communication, as legitimate as all other languages in the world." The widespread impact of Braille can be seen as the Braille system continues to further evolve with the help of modern technology, developing devices such as mechanical braille writers, braille printers, portable electronic braille notetakers and so on.