Valentin Haüy
| Valentin Haüy | |
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Valentin Haüy
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| Born | 13 November 1745 Saint-Just-en-Chaussée, Oise, France |
| Died | 19 March 1822 (aged 76) Paris, France |
| Nationality | French |
| Known for | first school for the blind |
| Relatives | René Just Haüy |
Valentin Haüy (pronounced [aɥi]; 13 November 1745 – 19 March 1822) was the founder, in 1784, of the first school for the blind, the Royal Institution for the Young Blind in Paris (now the National Institute for the Young Blind, INJA). In 1819, Louis Braille entered this school.
Haüy was born into a family of weavers. His father, a full-time loomer, also held the job of ringing the Angelus bells in a local Premonstrant Abbey. The abbey monks educated Valentin and he became a skilled linguist speaking ten different languages of the day. He also studied ancient Greek and Hebrew. In 1783, he gained the title "interpreter to the king", Louis XVI. In 1786, he was the interpreter of the King, to the Admiralty and the City Hall. He was a member of the Office of Writing.
Haüy's impulse to help the blind started in 1771, after he stopped for lunch in a cafe on the Place de la Concorde, Paris. There, he witnessed an ensemble of people from the Quinze-Vingts hospice for the blind being mocked during the religious street festival, "Saint Ovid's Fair". They were given dunce caps, oversized cardboard glasses and told to play their instruments which resulted in a cacophony of noises. He decided to found a school with Charles-Michel de l'Épée.
In May 1784, at Saint-Germain-des-Prés, he met a young beggar, François Lesueur; he was his first student. He developed a method of raised letters, to teach Lesueur to read, and compose sentences. He made rapid progress, and Haüy announced the success, in September 1784 in the Journal de Paris, then receiving encouragement from the French Academy of Sciences.
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