American Foundation for the Blind York City headquarters. Louis Braille was the Frenchman who invented the raised dot code that bears his name. On January 4, 2009, the 200th anniversary of his birth, AFB created an online gallery that includes pictures of him and digitized books and articles. AFB's main headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia. Other offices include New York City; Dallas, Texas; and Huntington, West Virginia. In 2012, AFB added VisionAware to its family of sites in partnership with the "Reader's Digest" Partners for Sight Foundation. The site folded in content from AFB's Senior Site, with new information and resources for adults of all
Slate and stylus Children) the first book ever published for the blind. Prior to 1786 tools for the blind to read or write were the results of individuals personal approaches to solutions. One of the more notable approach was that of Nicholas Saunderson (Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge) blind nearly from birth, devised an Arithmetical slate. Braille evolved from the night writing of Charles Barbier. "Ecriture Nocturne" (night writing) was invented in response to Napoleon's demand for a code that soldiers could use to communicate silently and without light at night. Because it used a cell with 2 columns of six dots