1. Charles Barbier left France during the Revolution and lived for several years in the United States, returning to France during the reign of Napoleon Bonaparte.
15 Facts About Charles Barbier
1. 2.
Charles Barbier was interested in shorthand and other alternative writing forms.
3.
Charles Barbier was concerned about the barriers to literacy faced by people with visual or hearing impairments.
4.
Charles Barbier proposed a simplified writing system based on a grid, which existed in two forms.
5.
Charles Barbier preferred the phonetic version, arguing that learning the rules of spelling presented a further barrier to literacy for those without formal education.
6.
Charles Barbier simultaneously invented three tools to make this possible: a grooved board to receive the impressions, the punch itself, and a guide to ensure that the dots lined up.
7.
Charles Barbier believed it would be especially helpful for those who had been blind since birth.
8.
Charles Barbier referred to this as the "alphabet manuel," or manual alphabet.
9.
Charles Barbier wrote to the Institution Royale des Jeunes Aveugles in Paris to tell them about his invention.
10.
When that director left in 1821, Charles Barbier wrote again and the new director, a man called Alexandre-Rene Pignier, asked a student to learn the method and demonstrate it to the other students and to members of the board of directors.
11.
The students, who had already learned the alphabet, used the grid with the conventional alphabet, even though Charles Barbier continued to promote the phonetic version.
12.
Charles Barbier's method allowed the students to take notes in class that they could re-read, and to communicate with other blind people.
13.
Charles Barbier donated many sets of the equipment to the school over the years.
14.
Charles Barbier spent the rest of his life trying to promote his ideas for universal education.
15.
Charles Barbier wrote several more books and tried to get his simplified writing systems introduced into nursery schools, but without success.