Scripture for the blind owes much to Louis Braille, who was born 200 years ago. Photo by Dag Smemo.

Louis Braille was three years old when an accident in his father’s harness workshop left him permanently blind. He was sent to a village priest for private tutoring. By the age of 15, he developed a new reading and writing system for the blind, using raised dots to represent letters.

The bicentenary of Louis Braille’s birth (1809) will be commemorated around the world, and especially in his birthplace of Coupvray, France. Braille’s invention of a reading system for the blind gave millions access to written knowledge.

The American Bible Society has long supported Bible literacy for the blind, through the translation and production of Braille Bibles and through innovations that provide the Word of God in audio formats.