Bicentenary of the Birth of Louis Braille

$5.65

$0.50 Mop Making - Mop making was introduced during the 1960's. All the components used in the mop making process are imported from England. Eleven (11) persons work on the mop table and a mop can be produced in less than five (5) minutes. Mop production is dependent on demand, and the mops are usually sold on the Barbadian and Caribbean markets.

$1.40 Caning - Caning is a very technical, time consuming process. Eight (8) persons work in this area, using cane which is sourced from New York. Most of the chairs which are caned come from Barbadians who need furniture refurbished. Local furniture manufacturers also use the services of the blind workshop to cane their furniture. Caning is done in bar stools, bed heads and cupboard doors.

$1.75 Little Girl at the Braille Machine -

The School for the Deaf and Blind was started through the voluntary efforts of the Barbados Association for the Blind and Deaf in 1959. The roll rose steadily from eight (8) in 1966 to forty (40) in 1968 through the unstinting efforts of its first trained teacher of the Deaf, Mr. Irving Wilson. .

The Lions’ Club of Barbados built a school to accommodate these students at its present location in the ‘The Pine’, St. Michael. The school became a government establishment that same year with Mr. Irving Wilson as its first Principal. The Lions again carried out extensions to the school in 1975 to accommodate a roll, which had increased to ninety-six (96) students. That same year the unit for the blind was added to the school.

Sign language was introduced in 1974 -75 as a method of communication. Since then this institution has embraced the Total Communication ‘philosophy’.

During the eighties, under the principalship of Ms. Gloria Franklyn the school saw the re-introduction of work exposure training for its teenage students and the introduction of Tele Type devices (TTD’S) for the Deaf. Sign Language classes were also introduced to the wider community.

Presently the school has a roll of sixty-eight (68) students ranging from ages 3-17 and fourteen (14) members of the teaching staff. 1996 saw the addition of a deaf teacher-aide.

$2.00 -Louis Braille - Louis Braille was born on January 4, 1809, in a town near Paris. At the age of three (3) Louis injured his eye in his father’s workshop with an awl, a tool used for making holes in leather.

Some time later his other eye became infected as a result of the injury to the first and in 1812 he became blind – the result of sympathetic ophthalmia.

In 1819, Louis was sent to Paris to live and study at the National Institute for the Blind.

Music was his first love so he became a talented cellist and organist, in time he played the organ for churches all over France.

In 1821 at the Institute Louis was first introduced to the idea of reading by using a coded system of raised dots by a man called Charles Barbier, a soldier. That same year he began work on improving the system and by 1824 at age 15, Louis had developed an improved system which allowed the user to both read and write an alphabet, by using one of his father’s blunt awls to create a 6-dot cell based upon normal spelling.

His first book ever printed using the Braille system was published in 1827. This book was used to describe and teach Braille at the same institute where he spent his life first as a student and then later as a teacher. He translated many books into Braille and was much liked and respected by his students.

In 1840 Louis and his friend Pierre Foucault developed a machine to speed up the Braille system which was previously a long drawn out process. Louis died in 1852 at age 43; his death went unreported by all the newspapers in Paris. It was only in 1854 that the system of Braille which he had developed was recognised in France.

In 1952, Louis Braille’s accomplishments were finally recognised by the French government and his body was exhumed and reburied in the Pantheon in Paris, with other French national heroes. Today he is celebrated as a hero for all blind and partially sighted people. His lasting legacy to blind persons worldwide is the gift of independence and the joy of reading.

Technical Details

Country BARBADOS

Title Bicentenary of the Birth of Louis Braille

Release Date July 06, 2009

Casco CASCO Studio

Printer Joh. Enschede Security Print.

Process Lithography.

Stamp Size 42.58mm x 28.45mm.

Format 50 (2 x 25).

Paper CASCO Crown watermark.

Perforation 14 per 2 cms.

Values 50c, $1.40, $1.75 and $2.