NCERT Class 4 English Santoor Chapter 06 Braille PDF Download

Chapter 6: Braille

Let us Read

Long ago, in France, a little boy named Louis Braille was playing outside his home. He was three years old. His father, a blacksmith, was working nearby. Louis started playing with the tools around him. Suddenly, a sharp tool pierced his eye. He cried out in pain. Within a few days, he became blind in one eye. The other eye also got affected, and he became totally blind.

In 1819, Louis, who was ten years old, got admission in the Royal Institute for Young Blind Persons in Paris. He learnt letters by using wood, cloth or pins arranged in pincushions. Around this time, an army man named Capt. Charles Barbier de la Serre had invented something called 'Night Writing'. It was an alphabet of raised dots and dashes that soldiers could 'read' with their fingers in the dark. However, it was too difficult and, therefore, not a success. But Louis, now a teenager, became interested in it and simplified it. He gave the world the Braille alphabet.

[Figure: The Braille alphabet showing symbols for letters a through z, with each letter represented by a pattern of raised dots, See in your textbook]

Thus, a blind person taught the world to see.

Braille is a method of reading through touch. As you can see in the figure, there is one Braille symbol for each of the twenty-six symbols (letters) of the English alphabet.

But Braille requires more space. This is because the letters cannot be written too close together. Since Braille requires more space, a Braille book is thicker than a regular printed book.

Braille is not just for people with blindness. Even people with sight can learn Braille too. Then they can write small poems and stories in Braille.

Teacher's Note

Louis Braille's key achievement was not inventing Braille from scratch - it came from simplifying Captain Barbier's 'Night Writing'. When you read about inventors and innovations, look for what problem they solved and how they improved on earlier ideas. This helps you understand that progress often builds on existing work rather than appearing completely new.

New Words

blacksmith, blind, pincushions, invented

Key Points

• Louis Braille became blind after an accident with a sharp tool when he was young, but he later invented a system that helped blind people read.
• Braille is a method of reading through touch, using raised dots arranged in patterns to represent each letter of the alphabet.
• Louis Braille simplified an earlier invention called 'Night Writing' to create the Braille alphabet that is still used today.
• Braille books need more space because the letters cannot be placed too close together, making them thicker than regular printed books.
• Braille is useful not only for blind people but also for sighted people who want to learn and read it.

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