This timeline celebrates the advancement of Braille over two hundred years. While this timeline focuses on major developments within the United States, Braille has advanced because of the expertise and enthusiasm of blind people all over the world. We highlight key blind-led innovations, but there are many other influential writing and reproduction machines, organizations, conferences, and more that are not included below.
To learn more about these and other developments in the history of Braille, check out the sources cited at the end of this timeline.
1809-1860: Foundations, Invention, and Setting the Stage
1809
Louis Braille is born in Coupvray, France. He is blinded in an accident at the age of three4.
1824-1825
Louis Braille invents his tactile system of raised dots for reading and writing5.
1829
The National Institute for Blind Youth in Paris, France publishes the first edition of Louis Braille’s code, Method for Writing Words, Music, and Plainsong in Dots6.
Visit the tenBroek Library website to read the first edition of Louis Braille’s code, Method for Writing Words, Music, and Plainsong in Dots, in English or the original French.
1835
Samuel Gridley Howe develops Boston line letter, a system of raised letters similar to print but without capital letters. This system was widely used in the United States before the dot codes came to prominence.
1837
A second edition of Braille’s code explanation is published, followed in 1838 by a basic code for mathematics.
The first full-length book in Braille is published, entitled Précis Sur L'Histoire De France (A Brief History of France).
1854
France officially adopts Braille as a reading mode for blind people.
1858
The Kentucky Legislature establishes the American Printing House for the Blind to address the need for a national center for printing materials for blind students. Its first embossed books are Boston line letter.
1860
The Missouri School for the Blind becomes the first school to adopt Braille in the United States. Other schools do not follow suit at this time.
1860-1932: The War of the Dots
1868
William Bell Wait introduces New York Point, an adaptation of Braille which was soon widely used in American residential schools for the blind. Characters in New York Point were two dots high and could be any number of dots wide.
1892
Frank H. Hall designs the first successful mechanical Braille writer; a year later he invents the Braille stereotype machine, which made production of Braille books much easier and began to turn the tide of opinion in favor of Braille for use in the United States.
1904
Congress establishes the first Free Matter for the Blind mailing program by providing a funding subsidy to the post office for libraries and other institutions for the blind to mail materials written in raised characters. This paves the way for distribution of Braille books through lending libraries; sending these books by mail would otherwise have been cost-prohibitive.
1905
The Uniform Type Committee, made up of representatives from American professional organizations, is established to try to determine one system of reading and writing for the English-speaking world. Several different systems are in use in the United States, and controversy rages3.
1917
Henry Martyn Taylor, a blind mathematician in England, extends the Braille alphabet to geometric and trigonometric terms. His mathematics code eventually becomes the standard in English-speaking countries for a time, until it is replaced by the Nemeth code and Unified English Braille.
1918
The Uniform Type Committee adopts a compromise “Grade 1½ Braille” (with 44 contractions) as the standard for US schools, publishers, and libraries. The decision brings unity within the US, but not with British Braille, which uses far more contractions and different rules for their use.
1919
The American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults (formerly known as the American Brotherhood for the Blind) is founded. Many of its programs included Twin Vision® (print/Braille) books, free Braille books for children, and free Braille calendars.
1931
The use of interpoint Braille (Braille embossed on both sides of the page), after much experimentation in prior years, has gained wide acceptance in the United States.
The Pratt-Smoot Act authorizes the Library of Congress to provide books for the blind. The law has expanded greatly over the years from the original $100,000 provided for Braille books.
1932
The United States and Great Britain reach agreement on “Standard English Braille,” which includes many more contractions. Britain declines to adopt use of capital letters.
1933-1960: Infrastructure Is Strengthened and Standards Change
1945
The National Braille Association (until 1964 called the National Braille Club) is founded. Today, it is a nationwide professional development organization for Braille transcribers and proofreaders.
1951
The “classic” Perkins Brailler first becomes available. Perkins had produced Braillers earlier, which were similar to the Hall Brailler, but this re-design was much more durable and required a lighter touch to press keys. This Brailler remains in wide use today.
1952
Louis Braille’s birthplace is sold to the “Friends of Louis Braille,” converted to a museum, and opened to the public. In 1957, it becomes a municipal museum maintained by both Coupvray and the organization now known as the World Blind Union.
The Nemeth Code for mathematics and science notation, invented by blind American mathematics professor Abraham Nemeth, is adopted by the Joint Uniform Braille Committee (JUBC; a predecessor to BANA). It is published by the American Printing House. It eventually replaces the Taylor Code as the standard in the US. Revisions are made in 1965, 1972, and, most recently, in 2022 to include a method for using the Nemeth Code within Unified English Braille7.
1954
World Braille Usage is first published, with revised editions in 1990 and 2013. An early goal of this publication was the furtherance of a worldwide, universal Braille code. The current emphasis is on standardization within languages.
1956
The Joint Uniform Braille Committee suggests some changes in contraction use, which are approved in different measures by the US and Britain. This creates more divergence in Braille usage between Britain and the US.
1959
The codebook English Braille, American Edition is issued.
1959
California Transcribers and Educators of the Blind and Visually Impaired is founded. Its reach today is nationwide, providing support and professional development in the field.
1960
American Printing House for the Blind produces a Braille version of the 1959 World Book Encyclopedia. It consists of 145 volumes that take up 43.5 feet of shelf space.
1960-1990: Technology Changes the Landscape
1960s
The earliest known working Braille translation software is developed by APH and IBM.
1962
The Thermoform 55 Brailon® Duplicator is introduced by American Thermoform Corporation, increasing efficiency of Braille production. This machine uses specially formulated plastic pages for making multiple copies of Braille that have been hand-transcribed on paper using a Perkins Brailler or slate and stylus (as is the case for much of the Braille produced during this time period).
1971
Triformation Systems, which would later become Enabling Technologies, releases their first embosser, the BD 3.
1975
Papenmeier Reha produces the BRAILLEX, an electronic device with a mechanical refreshable Braille display8.
1976
The first installation of the Duxbury Translator takes place at the Canadian National Institute for the Blind in Toronto, Canada. Duxbury is the first commercial Braille translation package to be released9.
Oleg and Andie Tretiakoff introduce the DigiCassette, the first commercially available paperless Braille machine, in Paris, France. Tretiakoff pioneered the piezo-electric display technology that is still prevalent in refreshable Braille displays today.
The Braille Authority of North America (BANA) is formed under its current name and basic structure. BANA is made up of many organizations of consumers, Braille producers and distributors, and educators1.
1977
BANA publishes Code of Braille Textbook Formats and Techniques, to help standardize production of textbooks. Revised in 1997, 2011, and 2016, it is now called Formats: Principles of Print-to-Braille Transcription.
1980
The original version of NFBTrans, a DOS-based Braille translation package from National Federation of the Blind, is released. NFBTrans and several other affordably priced Braille translators developed during the 1980s make it possible for individuals to create Braille documents on a computer for the first time. NFBTrans is released to public domain in the early 1990s.
1982
The VersaBraille, by Telesensory, is the first refreshable Braille display available in the United States.
1987
The Braille 'n Speak, developed by Blazie Engineering, is launched at the NFB national convention; it is the first portable notetaking device with a Braille keyboard.
1990
The International Braille and Technology Center (IBTC) opens at the NFB headquarters. This is a one-of-a-kind, comprehensive evaluation and demonstration facility.
Braille signage in public buildings and facilities in the US becomes a requirement following the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
1991-2025: Standards Change Again as Braille’s Reach Expands
1991
The International Council on English Braille (ICEB) holds its founding meeting. This is the result of efforts beginning in the 1980s to reduce differences in Braille rules among English-speaking countries. Today, its member countries are Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Nepal, South Africa, United Kingdom, and the United States.
1993
ICEB takes on a project, which was started by BANA, to develop what ultimately became known as Unified English Braille.
The first biennial Getting in Touch with Literacy conference is held in Little Rock, Arkansas.
1996
The Chafee Amendment amends copyright law to provide an exemption for books in specialized formats distributed in the US.
1997
After many states enact laws in the late 1980s and 1990s requiring Braille instruction for blind and low vision children, the requirement is solidified in federal law. The reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Public Law 105-17 requires Individualized Education Program (IEP) teams to provide instruction in Braille and its use, unless the team determines, based on evaluation, that such instruction is not appropriate.
The internationally standardized code for Braille music is published.
1999
The National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled launches Web-Braille, making Braille books available for digital download. Spearheaded by Dr. Judy Dixon, a blind leader in the Braille field, this was the precursor to today’s Braille and Audio Reading Download (BARD).
Braille patterns are added to the Unicode set. Although most Braille translation software and embossers have continued to use ASCII characters, the Unicode encoding will be the basis for the forthcoming eBraille file standard.
2002
A blind software engineer named John Boyer, with the support of ViewPlus, begins work on Liblouis, an open-source Braille translator and back-translator that supports many languages. Today Liblouis is the translation package used in many products including some popular screen readers.
2008
The current Braille notation for the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is published by ICEB and subsequently adopted by BANA. The IPA presents precise details of pronunciation in written form all the sounds in all languages on earth today. The current Braille version was developed largely through the efforts of Dr. Robert Englebretson, a blind linguistics professor2.
2009
The US Mint releases the Louis Braille Bicentennial Silver Dollar, the first legal tender in the US to include readable Braille, to honor the 200th anniversary of Louis Braille's birth.
On May 11, 2009, the STS-125 mission of NASA Space Shuttle Atlantis launched from Kennedy Space Center carrying one proof and one uncirculated Louis Braille Bicentennial Silver Dollar. They returned to Earth on May 24, 2009, after traveling 197 orbits around the planet and 5.3 million miles in space.
Collect your own piece of Braille history. The NFB’s Independence Market sells the commemorative proof coin issued by the United States Mint. To purchase your Braille coin, email us at independencemarket@nfb.org, or call 410-659-9314, extension 2216.
2010
BANA, in collaboration with Braille Literacy Canada, publishes guidelines and standards for tactile graphics. A revision was released in 2022 to align the examples with UEB.
2012
After many years of controversy, BANA adopts Unified English Braille in the United States, with full implementation intended by 2016. The updates ensure better electronic translation from print to Braille and from Braille to print; bring uniformity to Braille among English-Speaking countries for better sharing of resources; and make the code more extensible so that more of the ever-growing number of print symbols, including technical symbols, can be rendered in Braille. Official codes in the US are now UEB, Nemeth, Music, and IPA.
2014
The ability to type Braille directly onto a mobile device’s touch screen (Braille Screen Input) becomes available for the first time with the release of Apple’s iOS 8.
2016
Legislation allowing NLS to distribute Braille equipment to patrons, as it has been distributing audio playback equipment, is passed. After a federal appropriation in 2018 and a subsequent pilot program, refreshable Braille eReaders are now available without cost to any patron of NLS who requests one.
2018
The United Nations establishes International World Braille Day in celebration of its creator, Louis Braille. The first celebration was held on January 4, 2019. Find out more at braille.day.
2019
The Marrakesh Treaty comes into force in the United States. This treaty allows for the exchange of copyrighted materials in Braille and other accessible-format books across international borders.
2024
The Monarch, the first device with a reliable multi-line Braille display and the ability to display graphics, becomes available.
2025
A release candidate for eBraille is published. A years-long international effort sponsored by the DAISY consortium, eBraille is a new digital reading format for Braille publications that will allow for better integration of tactile graphics and more dynamic interaction with electronic Braille.
Sources and Further Reading
Dixon, Judith (ed). Braille Into the Next Millennium . National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped and Friends of Libraries for Blind and Physically Handicapped Individuals in North America, 2001.
Englebretson, Robert. (2009). “An overview of IPA Braille: an updated tactile representation of the International Phonetic Alphabet.” 2009. https://www.ruf.rice.edu/~reng/englebretson2009.pdf.
Irwin, Robert P. “War of the Dots.” In As I Saw It (American Foundation for the Blind, 1955), https://archive.org/details/asisawit00robe.
Lorimer, Pamela. Reading By Touch: Trials, Battles, and Discoveries. National Federation of the Blind, 2000.
Mellor, C. M. Louis Braille: A Touch of Genius. National Braille Press, 2006.
Navy, Caryn. (1991) “The History of the Nemeth Code: An Interview with Dr. Abraham Nemeth.” Future Reflections 28, no. 1 (1991). https://nfb.org/sites/default/files/images/nfb/publications/fr/fr28/fr280110.htm.
Papenmeier Reha Technology. “Milestones.” https://www.papenmeier-rehatechnik.de/en/about_us_milestones.html.
Sullivan, Joe, and David Holladay. “Early History of Braille Translators and Embossers.” https://www.duxburysystems.com/bthist.asp.
Van Gerven, Clara, and Anne Taylor. “The Information Age Braille Technology Timeline.” Future Reflections 28, no. 1 (2009). https://nfb.org/sites/default/files/images/nfb/publications/fr/fr28/fr280109.htm.