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 Slate and stylus The slate and stylus are tools used by blind persons to write text that they can read without assistance. Invented by Charles Barbier as the tool for writing night writing, the slate and stylus allow for a quick, easy, convenient and constant method of making embossed printing for Braille character encoding. Prior methods of making raised printing for the blind required a movable type printing press. The basic design of the slate consists of two pieces of metal, plastic or wood fastened together with a hinge at one side. The back part of the slate is solid