Braille wanted to create an alphabet for the blind. He based his system on a secret military code called Sonography, which was a kind of touchable writing. Each letter of Sonography was made up of a twelve-dot cell, two dots wide by six dots high. The problem with Sonography was the human fingertip could not feel all the dots with one touch.

Braille simplified the code into a six-dot cell, two dots wide by three dots high. This way, a fingertip could touch all the dots with one impression and move rapidly from one cell to the next.

His system was adopted and used by his school, the Royal Institute for Blind Youth, in Paris. Braille spent many years refining his system. By 1943, use of the Braille Alphabet became widespread.