March 14 - Louis Braille

I have just finished listening to a biography of Louis Braille. What an amazing young man! It is astounding to think that in his short lifetime he was able to leave the world with a legacy of such far reaching effects. Braille was the inventor of the six dots system, a system that enables people without sight to read by touch. Although I can’t read braille myself – I think that my fingertips have been desensitized by pounding computer keys – I have been with other people who have read braille with almost lightning speed. The system which Braille invented has been literally unchanged or improved upon since his invention of over two hundred years ago.

Since I finished reading about Louis Braille, I have been especially aware both of the challenges faced by people who are completely without sight and also of some of their accomplishments. Have you been watching the paralympics? While the prowess of these athletes with disabilities is quite amazing, I have also been thinking of the many challenges they have encountered before they reached the height of paralympic endeavour. While we see only the excellence of their athletic ability, I realize that they also face the daily challenges of living with a disability. It is not only their athleticism which has taken them to the level of the 2018 Games, but also patience, determination  and will power.

I was especially impressed by a particular line in the biography I read. In the book, Triumph Over Darkness, the author noted that the only road travelled by Braille in his entire lifetime was the road between the village where he was born and the forty miles to Paris, where at age ten he was enrolled in the Institute for Blind Juveniles.  My thought was that Braille didn’t need to travel far from home in order to leave his legacy. Is this a lesson for us as well? We can all of us make a difference as we inhabit the small part of the world in which we live.

As a side note ...Lyle and I have just flown back from Winnipeg. The aircraft was a CRJ 900. On the overhead luggage compartments, the seat numbers were in visual print, but also in braille. It was the first time we have seen braille on airplane seat numbers.

Thanks to Air Canada and also to the young blind inventor, Louis Braille.