HR2872MAR3

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Week Ending March 3, 2006

H.R.2872 To require the Secretary of the Treasury to mint coins in commemoration of Louis Braille.

The bill would authorize a commemorative coin recognizing the accomplishments of Louis Braille, the inventor of the Braille method of reading and writing used by the blind. Braille, himself, the bill data said lost his sight at age three while a resident in a small French village, his birthplace in 1809.

Braille actually attended school while blind but later went on to a noted school for the blind in Paris where he became an avid reader but found only a few books for those with poor eyesight.

Braille became familiar with Sonography, a wartime method of writing messages that could be felt with the fingertips and interpreted without light that might draw attention from enemy gunners in the mid-1820’s. Braille adapted and expanded the Sonography methods to be used by the blind.

Braille is less often taught these days, the bill data noted, but 85% of the blind who are employed are Braille-literate. Only ten percent of blind people are taught Braille these days, a matter considered detrimental to the traits of literacy and employability necessary for the blind to be hired.

The coin commemorating Louis Braille would be a $1 coin of which 400,000 would be minted. The coin would be made of 90% silver and 10% copper and will be considered legal tender, however, they will be distributed in un-circulated and proof conditions with a $10 surcharge on each coin making them more likely to be collected.

The surcharge is required by law to cover the expense of design, minting, promotion and distribution of the coin as it is that commemorative coins must not cost the federal government anything. After expenses, any remaining funds would be donated to the National Federation of the Blind. The coins will be distributed only in 2009.

Sponsor: Rep. Robert W. Ney (R-OH-18^th)

Vote: Passed House by voice vote march 1, 2006

Cost to the taxpayers: No cost to the taxpayer. Commemorative coins must pay their own way through surcharges.

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MORE INFORMATION

The Congress finds as follows:

(1) Louis Braille, who invented the Braille method for reading and writing by the blind that has allowed millions of blind people to be literate participants in their societies, was born in Coupvray, a small village near Paris, on January 4, 1809.

(2) Braille lost his sight at the age of three after injuring himself with an awl in the shop of his father Rene, a maker of harnesses and other objects of leather.

(3) A youth who was both intelligent and creative and was blessed with dedicated parents, a thoughtful local priest and an energetic local schoolteacher, Braille adapted to the situation and attended local school with other youths of his age, an unheard-of practice for a blind child of the period.

(4) At the age of 10, when his schooling otherwise would have stopped, Braille--with the aid of the priest and schoolteacher--was given a scholarship by a local nobleman and went to Paris to attend the Royal Institute for Blind Children where he became the youngest pupil.

(5) At the school, most instruction was oral but Braille found there were books for the blind--large, expensive-to-produce books in which the text was of large letters embossed upon the page.

(6) Soon Braille had read all 14 books in the school, but thirsted for more.

(7) A captain in Napoleon's army, Charles Barbier de la Serre, had invented `night writing', a method for communicating on the battlefield amidst the thick smoke of combat or at night without lighting a match--which would aid enemy gunners--that used dots and dashes that were felt and interpreted with the fingers, and later adapted the method for use by the blind, calling it Sonography because it represented words by sounds, rather than spelling.

(8) Braille adopted the Sonography method instantly but soon recognized that the basis in sound and the large number of dots--as many as 12-- used to represent words was too cumbersome.

(9) By the age of 15, and using a blunt awl, the same sort of tool that had blinded him, Braille had developed what is essentially modern Braille, a code that uses no more than 6 dots in a `cell' of 2 columns of 3 dots each to represent each letter and contains a system of punctuation and of `contractions' to speed writing and reading.

(10) In contrast to the bulky books consisting of large embossed letters, Braille books can contain as many as 1000 characters or contractions on a standard 11-by-12-inch page of heavy paper, and to this day Braille can be punched with an awl-like `stylus' into paper held in a metal `slate' that is very similar to the ones that Louis Braille adapted from Barbier's original `night writing' devices.

(11) Also a talented organist who supported himself by giving concerts, Braille went on to develop the Braille representation of music and in 1829 published the first-ever Braille book, a manual about how to read and write music.

(12) 8 years later, in 1837, Braille followed that publication with another book detailing a system of representation of mathematics.

(13) Braille's talents were quickly recognized, and at 17 he was made the first blind apprentice teacher at the school, where he taught algebra, grammar, music, and geography.

(14) He and two blind classmates, his friends who probably were the first people to learn to read and write Braille, later became the first three blind full professors at the school.

(15) However, despite the fact that many blind people enthusiastically adopted the system of writing and reading, there was great skepticism among sighted people about the real usefulness of Braille's code, and even at the Royal Institute, it was not taught until after his death on January 6, 1852.

(16) Braille did not start to spread widely until 1868 when a group of British men--later to become known as the Royal National Institute for the Blind--began publicizing and teaching the system.

(17) Braille did not become the official and sole method of reading and writing for blind United States citizens until the 20th Century.

(18) Helen Keller, a Braille reader of another generation, said: `Braille has been a most precious aid to me in many ways. It made my going to college possible--it was the only method by which I could take notes on lectures. All my examination papers were copied for me in this system. I use Braille as a spider uses its web--to catch thoughts that flit across my mind for speeches, messages and manuscripts.'.

(19) While rapid technological advances in the 20th Century have greatly aided the blind in many ways by speeding access to information, each advance has seen a commensurate drop in the teaching of Braille, to the point that only about 10 percent of blind students today are taught the system.

(20) However, for the blind not to know Braille is in itself a handicap, because literacy is the ability to read and the ability to write and the ability to do the two interactively.

(21) The National Federation of the Blind, the Nation's oldest membership organization consisting of blind members, has been a champion of the Braille code, of Braille literacy for all blind people and of the memory of Louis Braille, and continues its Braille literacy efforts today through its divisions emphasizing Braille literacy, emphasizing education of blind children and emphasizing employment of the blind.

(22) Braille literacy aids the blind in taking responsible and self-sufficient roles in society, such as employment: while 70 percent of the blind are unemployed, 85 percent of the employed blind are Braille-literate.

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