Photograph of a portrait bust of Louis Braille. The French educationist Louis Braille (1809-52) was the creator of braille, a system of raised dots that enables blind people to read and write. He was born near Paris, France, and became blind when he was aged 3. Braille studied at the Institution des Jeunes Aveugles (Institute for the young blind) from the age of 10 and became professor in 1826. He created braille in 1829. This system is based on combinations of 6 raised dots which can either represent individual letters or whole words. Braille is now used in music, mathematics and science, as well as for written languages.