The True Story of Louis Braille, a Programmer Ante Litteram

We believe that Louis Braille can be considered a programmer ante litteram: not only for having employed six dots analogous to a binary code, but also for having anticipated a logic akin to that of today’s true programmers.

Louis Braille was born on January 4, 1809, in Coupvray, in a France undergoing profound changes on many fronts. Europe was still marked by the consequences of the French Revolution and the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte. The Napoleonic wars had redrawn borders and transformed the dynamics of power across the continent, contributing to an atmosphere of instability and renewed nationalism. The Revolution had challenged the privileges of the old hierarchies, fueling the rise of an emerging bourgeoisie and a growing interest in the rights of people moving from rural areas to major urban centers. Although a full understanding of the concept of inclusion — particularly regarding poor people with disabilities — was still far off, the awareness of the need for alternatives to religiously driven charitable systems was beginning to take root. The goal was to ensure broader access to care and education for the marginalized groups of a society in flux.

Indeed, the beginning of the 19th century also marked a transition toward a more modern society, with the first signs of the Industrial Revolution which, though less advanced in France than in England, were already starting to transform social, economic, cultural, scientific, and technical structures.

The early nineteenth century was still heavily influenced by the Enlightenment, which had promoted a rigorous approach to knowledge and a strong belief in the power of science and reason. Drawing on empirical reason and scientific knowledge, the Enlightenment movement sought to bring the human mind — until then marked by ignorance and superstition — into a kind of intellectual illumination, where human beings could express their intellect rationally. It is no coincidence that throughout the eighteenth century, hospitals began evolving from being basic care centers for the sick to becoming hubs of medical innovation and research, as well as the primary places for training future physicians. Likewise, it is no coincidence that in the same historical moment — in 1784 in Paris — Valentin Haüy founded the world’s first institute for the education of blind people, the Institut National des Jeunes Aveugles, which set the noble goal of providing assistance and education to blind youth. Soon after, other similar institutions were established throughout Europe and then across the world.

Louis Braille was born into this cultural and social landscape. Even though we cannot attribute to the young and blind Braille a practical understanding of the implications of a non-decimal numbering system, we cannot rule out a correlation with the societal changes occurring at that very time. After all, when multiple areas of society respond simultaneously to change and influence one another, we can say they enter into resonance. In a way, we might dare to say that, indirectly, even the mind of adolescent Louis resonated with the rest of society and was illuminated by the logic expressed a century earlier by the mathematician and philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz — philosophy and mathematics that had had the entire eighteenth century to settle into the science and technology of the time. In fact, in 1703, Leibniz published a treatise in which he explained how every number could be represented using only two digits: 0 and 1.

Although the empirical application of the binary system developed fully only in the twentieth century with the advent of computers, it is true that we have no documented evidence that Louis Braille consciously absorbed or applied Leibniz’s theories. Nevertheless, from a sociocultural perspective, it is possible to argue that the Braille system represented one of the earliest modern manifestations of the binary system, serving as a concrete and functional ante litteram application.

Today, the official narrative of Braille as we know it tells us the story of French officer Charles Barbier, who introduced his innovative method — known as "night writing" (écriture nocturne) — at the National Institute for Blind Youth in Paris. The idea behind this system was to create a tactile code capable of transmitting military messages in ciphered form, using embossed symbols that could be read by touch, even in complete darkness. In this context, Louis Braille came into contact with Barbier’s method — and into conflict with its author. Inspired by this innovation, Braille had the insight to transform this military communication tool into a tactile reading and writing system for the blind, which over time became universally known as Braille.

The paragraph just presented represents the promotional plot of Braille, primarily developed by two authors a century apart: Alexandre-René Pignier in 1859 and Pierre Henri in 1952.

Pignier places the meeting between Braille and Barbier twelve years earlier than it actually occurred, writing the hagiography of a young hero who invents a writing system for the blind. Henri, a century later, enriches the story by formulating conjectures without any documentary support. Then, all the other authors stepped in to amplify and embellish the narrative with further details, turning a supposed encounter into a clash, and an indisputable form of talent into a stroke of genius.

It is important to clarify that our intent is by no means to diminish the figure of Louis Braille or the fundamental contribution he made to the history of writing and reading for blind people. Rather, our goal is to restore to the historical narrative an authentic and verifiable dimension, one that highlights the complexity of the events and the individuals involved.

Regarding the roles of Barbier and Braille, history and documents tell us a different story. In fact, the method that inspired Louis Braille was never conceived for military use, but was created specifically for blind people. Charles Barbier did not present it at the Institution Royale des Jeunes Aveugles; it was Pignier, in his essay (published posthumously for both Braille and Barbier), who invented a meeting between Barbier and Braille as a teenager, in which the young man supposedly pointed out the flaws in the method.

In reality, Charles Barbier had a brief military career (from 1784 to 1792), but he devoted decades to developing and promoting shorthand methods of writing and notation designed specifically not only for visually impaired people, but also for those living in poverty who were unable to access formal education. For blind people, Barbier invented in 1815 both a dotted writing system and the tools needed to write: the rounded stylus, the grooved ruler to align the dots, and a movable guide to keep them vertically aligned. His mind conceived the tactile dot-writing method, although there was no proof that the method would actually help blind individuals to read and write. Instead, after publishing his method, Barbier sent it to the Institute for Blind Youth, but the director, Sébastien Guillié, rejected it.

Later, in 1821, Guillié was dismissed and replaced by Dr. Alexandre-René Pignier. Barbier wrote to the school again, sending information about his method. Pignier had an ambiguous reaction: he replied to Barbier — keeping him at a distance — but at the same time, he presented the writing method to the school’s Board of Directors and then to the students. Braille, a student at the Institute, was not at all a solitary genius who took an invention meant for another purpose and transformed it into a revolutionary system for the blind. He was not "alone" in his efforts, nor did he fight against a hostile establishment. On the contrary, he was one of the students who effectively used Barbier's method and, more importantly, was fully supported and encouraged, working together with fellow students and teachers to refine the new writing system conceived specifically for blind people.

When Barbier and Pignier finally met in person (on June 19, 1821, though not for a public presentation), Barbier’s method was already in use at the Institute.

"Those who are blind from birth, deprived, like other blind individuals, of the means to read books and write, face the greatest difficulty in correctly tracing conventional letters; they are limited to using special correspondence methods reserved for them and for those willing to take the trouble to learn them. In these circumstances, the dotted writing shown in Table VII, performed without ink or pencil using a metal stylus that imprints regular, tactile, and permanent dots, seems to offer the greatest advantages, but only in institutions dedicated to their education could the results be properly assessed." (Charles Barbier, 1815)

We have stated that Louis Braille was a programmer ante litteram. After reorganizing the historical facts, our assertion remains valid.

In 1821, Louis was twelve years old, and at the Institute, a new writing system had been introduced that allowed all students to write and read — albeit a system still in need of improvement. Before the dot-based writing method, the young residents could write in the same way as sighted people, but they could not reread what they had written. They could read the large volumes with embossed cursive letters devised by Haüy, but outside the Institute, they no longer had access or support to continue doing so. In this context, Barbier’s method radically changed the lives of the students.

Now let us leap forward twelve years. Charles Barbier became aware of the system developed by Louis Braille only in 1833. From 1821 onward, Louis Braille and his companions improved Barbier’s method number 7, transforming it into the six-dot Braille system we still know today. In 1829, Pignier had the first treatise on the new writing system published under the title: “Procédé pour écrire les paroles, la musique et le plain-chant au moyen de points, à l’usage des aveugles et disposés pour eux.” The author was Louis Braille.

On March 29, 1833, Barbier wrote to Pignier requesting a copy of Braille’s method. On March 31, after reading it, Charles Barbier wrote to Louis Braille to congratulate him. The two went on to exchange several friendly letters. On June 10, Braille visited Barbier at his residence: they met for the first time.

We believe that each person is a child of their time. The question we often ask ourselves is: If Louis Braille and Charles Barbier had not improved and invented a reading and writing system for people with visual disabilities, would a similar system have emerged elsewhere, in another time or place?

Our answer is a clear “yes.”

“Louis Braille is, for the blind, a symbol — the symbol of the blind man who removes an obstacle for his companions in misfortune,” wrote Pierre Henri. This statement not only rings deeply true, but also reflects the intent of Pignier’s 1859 treatise: to offer blind people an identity and a tool capable of definitively breaking down cultural and social barriers, opening the way to real emancipation.

The society of the time was a forge of ideas. In every social, cultural, scientific, and technical sector, transformations and innovations were underway — expressions of that ferment that began with the Enlightenment of the previous century.

For instance, Kantian thought — with its emphasis on the autonomy of reason and the importance of using the mind in a critical and liberating way — fits easily within this context. It is one of the foundational sources that helped create a cultural climate in which rationality and innovation were seen as essential tools for human progress.

Kant, especially through his works on the Critique of Pure Reason and the Critique of Practical Reason, promoted the idea that human beings could free themselves from the limitations imposed by traditions and dogmas by relying on their rational capacity to understand and improve the world. This spirit of confidence in human reason and the potential for innovation permeated society, encouraging a critical and creative approach even in fields that, at the time, might have seemed distant from philosophy.

In this context, the ingenuity of Charles Barbier and Louis Braille in conceiving a system of reading and writing for the blind can be seen as a reflection of that intellectual climate, which encouraged overcoming traditional barriers and seeking innovative solutions to complex problems.

The method invented by Charles Barbier — borrowing terminology from the world of computing — could today be described as not very usable. It is precisely at this point that Louis Braille’s programming instinct (and that of his fellow students at the Institute) came to the fore.

Inspired by the need to make tactile writing more accessible, he observed the shortcomings of Barbier’s method and, like a skilled programmer, decided to restructure the system. He reduced its complexity by moving from a 12-dot cell to one of just 6 dots, arranged in two columns of three.

This change not only simplified the tactile writing code but significantly improved its legibility and execution speed: blind people could now read and write more fluidly and efficiently.

Just as a programmer works to optimize code — reducing errors, improving performance, and making the system more intuitive — Louis Braille applied an innovative and rational logic to transform Barbier’s solution, expressly designed for the needs of blind communication, into a universal method of reading and writing.

His ability to simplify and enhance the system is a clear example of how ingenuity and vision can anticipate technological and conceptual developments. To borrow more computer science terminology, we could say that Louis Braille optimized the system, making it extremely functional.

His logic, methodical rationality, and sense of optimization — embodied in the binary choice of dots — position him as a programmer ante litteram, comparable to a modern Software engineer.

At the same time, we must also celebrate Charles Barbier, to whom this brief article aims to give due credit: a pioneering benefactor and inventor who, with the courage to lift dots off a sheet of paper and turn them into writing, paved the way for this innovation.

Together, Barbier’s insight and Braille’s perfecting genius gave rise to a historic transformation in tactile communication.

Bibliography

• Campsie Philippa - Charles Barbier. A hidden story
• Henri Pierre - La vie et l’œuvre de Louis Braille
• Streit Jakob - LouisBraille

This article was born from years of passion, experience, and a deep commitment to accessibility. If it helped you or inspired you, please consider sharing it by quoting a part and linking to the original page. It’s a simple way to show respect for the work behind it — and to help others discover it too.

Ìd love to hear from you — feel free to join the Biblos Facebook Group or follow us on the Biblos Telegram Channel. Let’s keep learning, sharing, and building a more accessible world together.