Web Site Accessibility Blog

January 4, 1809 was the birthdate of Louis Braille, and congrats to Google for celebrating the birthday of this accessibility pioneer.

Who was Louis Braille?
Louis Braille injured his eye in his father’s workshop at age three, which led to an infection that took away the site in his right eye as well. He learned a system of reading raised letters at a French school for the blind, but the system did not allow for writing, only reading. At the school, Braille met a French soldier who introduced a code system of raised dots on paper that was used in the military to transmit top-secret messages. Louis adapted this system to create the modern day Braille alphabet. Louis Braille created the Braille system by age fifteen, and extended the system to include notations for music and mathematics. Braille died at age 43, but the Braille system went unused for over 10 years until 1868, when it was used in a British publication.

I’m very pleased to see Google recognize Louis Braille. However, let’s hope that Google finds a way to remove the CAPTCHA that does not allow blind users to access the many services Google offers. That would truly be a fitting tribute.