Other Methods of Tactile Text
Louis Braille wasn’t the first to attempt a tactile way of reading, and he certainly wouldn't be the last. After word of the school in Paris spread, blind schools began popping up across the world. America had several blind schools, and several types of reading. Information is from the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired.
Boston Line type was created by Samual Gridley Howe, who was the founder of New England School for the Blind–now Perkin’s School for the Blind. Boston Line type was a simplified version of the Roman alphabet, and was the most used tactile type in America until the late 1800’s.
Boston Line type
William Bell Wait created New York Point, which was used in American blind schools until the late 1800’s. Laura Ingles Wilder’s sister, Mary Ingles, learned and used New York Point.
New York Point
Moon type is named for its creator, William Moon. Moon is popular in Britain for those who have lost their sight after a lifetime of visual reading.
Moon type
Fishburne–created by S.B. Fishburne–is larger than Braille, and uses both dashes and dots, similar to night writing. It is used for labeling more often than reading.
Fishburne
There were so many other ways of tactile writing that people thought were better than Braille. Braille was not immediately accepted because it did not look like the same alphabet that the sighted used, which made it hard for them to learn. The National Institute’s director, Alexandre François-René Pignier, supported the use of Braille, but after his retirement, his successor Pierre-Armand Dufau banned the use of Braille in the school. His deputy, Joseph Guadet, eventually convinced him that Braille was indeed a good system. Guadet said in the 1850 edition of Des Aveugles (Concerning the Blind), “...nevertheless one can say, it opened up a new era in the education of those deprived of eyesight…”. This idea soon began spreading to the rest of the world.