Louise Braille remembered on 225th birth anniversary in Kothagudem

Divyang Udyoga Sangham president Maloth Jaggu Das, its members Ramaniah, Upendramma, TVPS general secretary Medi Praveen Kumar, members K Nageswara Rao and others were present

Kothagudem: French educator Louis Braille has opened the gates of literacy and knowledge to visually challenged people across the world, said Telangana Vibhinna Pratibhavantula Sangham (TVPS) founder president Sathish Gundupuneni.

He along with the members of the sangham cut a cake to celebrate 225th birth anniversary of Braille here on Saturday. Born on January 4, 1809, in a village near Paris, Braille lost vision in both his eyes accidentally and became completely blind at the age of 4, he said.

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Braille studied at the Institute for Blind Youth in Paris founded by Valentin Haüy and later was appointed a professor at the same school at the age of 17. During the day, he taught the students in the then-existing “line type” method and at night he worked hard to create a script with which the blind could read and write, Sathish said.

Braille developed a six-dot method enabling the blind to read and write easily by improvising a code script with 12 raised dots created by a French military officer, Charles Barbier for battlefield communication in the night.

As a result of the efforts of Louis Braille, many visually challenged persons were able to serve as IAS officers, Supreme Court Judges, Central and State government employees, Sathish explained.

Divyang Udyoga Sangham president Maloth Jaggu Das, its members Ramaniah, Upendramma, TVPS general secretary Medi Praveen Kumar, members K Nageswara Rao, Abdul Nayeem, Saibaba, Rajaiah, Ramesh, Chand Pasha, Govardhan Reddy and others were present.