JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas –
January is World Braille Month in honor of Louis Braille who was born Jan. 4, 1809, in France. Blinded at three years of age, he developed the system of raised dots that is now the established system for blind reading materials at just 15 years of age.
Blindness is caused by a variety of diseases and battlefield trauma and among the objects in the U.S. Army Medical Department Museum collection at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston are two braille books on human anatomy.
The books were used by Henry Otis Kendall, who was blinded by shrapnel from a mine explosion in World War I. He used these books while studying to become a physical therapist.