Braille

Braille, the language and form of reading for blind people, was invented by a French boy named Louis Braille. He became inspired when he was twelve years old when a former soldier visited the school to share an invention called "night writing," a code of 12 raised dots that let soldiers share top secret information on the battlefield. It was too complicated for soldiers to understand, but it was easy for Louis. He trimmed it down to 6 dots by the time he was 15. He published the first braille book in 1829. In 1837, he expanded it by including symbols for math and music. The public was skeptical about the usefulness of braille, and it was used worldwide until 1868 when a group of British men, now known as the Royal National Institute for the Blind, took up the cause.