NLS is pleased to have you join us in celebrating 200 years of braille.
Louis Braille was born in the village of Coupvray near Paris on January 4, 1809. One day, when he was three, he was playing with a sharp tool belonging to his father, a harness maker. He accidentally injured one eye with the tool, then developed an infection that later caused total blindness. In 1821, Braille, at the age of twelve, took a secret code devised for the military and recognized in it a basis for written communication for blind individuals. While enrolled at the National Institute of Blind Youth in Paris, Braille spent several years developing the system of raised dots that has come to be known by his name.
Find more information about Louis Braille and braille education at NLS. Below is a timeline of significant events and developments related to braille at the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled (NLS). It highlights NLS milestones, such as NLS launching its Braille-on-Demand and Braille eReader programs.
If you have questions about NLS, our eligibility requirements, or how to enroll, you can find answers at www.loc.gov/nls/who-we-are. To contact the NLS network library in your state, visit Find Your Library or call 888-NLS-READ (888-657-7323).
Braille at the Library of Congress and at NLS
The timeline below marks significant events and developments in braille's history at NLS, including advancements in the use of technology, expansion of the services related to braille that NLS provides, and collaboration with individuals and organizations promoting braille use throughout the world.
1897
The Library of Congress opens a Reading Room for the Blind in what is now the Thomas Jefferson Building. Members of the local blind community are encouraged to come and read on premises from a selection of approximately 500 raised character titles.
1904
Congress expands Free Matter for the Blind, a postal category originally established in 1899 to cover raised character letters, to include raised character books and magazines, paving the way for braille library service by mail.
1918
Reading Room for the Blind librarian Gertrude Rider begins a volunteer braille transcribing service in collaboration with the American Red Cross.
1931
The Pratt-Smoot Act establishes Books for the Adult Blind, allowing the Library of Congress to use public funding to produce and distribute braille reading materials around the country.
1932
British and American representatives meet for the London Conference and agree to adopt Standard English Braille. Despite the name, slight differences remain in how braille is implemented between the countries, with Britain choosing not to adopt capital letters. NLS begins loaning books produced using the new code in 1933.
1959
Braille printing houses adopt English Braille, American Edition, as the standard for braille produced in the US, a revision of Standard English Braille that uses a different set of contractions believed to better serve readers. American and British braille now diverge further than under the previous code.
1962
Congress expands the mandate of the Division for the Blind to include music, allowing the circulation of braille musical scores.
1978
NLS releases Introduction to Braille Mathematics as a training tool for transcribers. The first group of Nemeth braille transcription students receive their NLS certifications in 1980.
1979
NLS produces and publishes Bettye Krolick’s Dictionary of Braille Music Signs, standardizing many aspects of braille music. Krolick will continue to revise and update documentation of the braille music code for decades.
1986
The braille certification program supervised by NLS begins accepting sample manuscripts produced with direct-entry software.
1995
NLS releases its 10,000th braille book, Brother Eagle, Sister Sky.
1999
After a year-long pilot, NLS formally releases Web-Braille, a system for distributing electronic braille books over the Internet. Any patron with access to a refreshable braille device or embosser can now receive braille books immediately, without waiting for mail delivery.
2013
NLS and Perkins School for the Blind co-host the Braille Summit, a four-day conference to discuss the future of braille literacy in the United States.
The BARD Mobile app for iOS allows NLS patrons with Bluetooth-enabled refreshable braille displays to download and read braille books using a mobile device.
2016
NLS implements Unified English Braille, a revision to the braille code developed by the International Council on English Braille to standardize braille codes across English-speaking countries.
An amendment to the Pratt-Smoot Act allows NLS to pilot developing and distributing refreshable braille displays. The first NLS Braille eReaders are released to patron testers in 2017.
2020
NLS begins sharing its digitized braille collection with authorized entities in other countries thanks to the Marrakesh Treaty. The first NLS book downloaded in another country is Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood.
2022
The BARD Mobile app for Android is updated to support braille reading with Bluetooth-enabled refreshable braille displays.
NLS launches the Braille-on-Demand pilot project, allowing active NLS patrons to make monthly requests for hard-copy braille books that they can keep indefinitely, separate from the regular system for limited-term library loans.
2024
The NLS Braille eReader is now available to all interested patrons.