Louis Braille
Braille was the child of a leather maker. He was the youngest of four children. He had three older siblings, two sisters and a brother. He became blind at the age of three, because he accidentally stuck a stitching awl into one eye while he was in his father's workshop. At the time, there were no antibiotics, and soon his injured eye was infected. The infection spread to his other eye and soon, he became blind in both eyes. He went to the Royal Institute of Blind Youth when he was 10. Braille was a good student, especially in science and music. Later, when he was an adult, he became a church organist. He was also a teacher at the Institute of Blind Youth. Braille died in Paris at the age of 43 of a disease called tuberculosis.