National Institute for Blind Children

The National Institute for Blind Children, established in Paris in 1784 by Valentin Haüy, was a pioneering school for the blind. Haüy, inspired by seeing blind individuals exhibited in a sideshow, aimed to improve their lives and provide them with a sense of purpose. He developed a system of embossed letters that allowed blind students to read. Louis Braille, the inventor of the widely used Braille alphabet, was a student and later a teacher at this institution, which was initially known as the National Institution for Blind Youth and later renamed the Royal Institution for Blind Youth.1