The American Bible Society’s 1st American Standard Version Edition in Braille.

Helen Keller (1880-1968) became both blind and deaf from an illness contracted at 19 months. Yet, Helen learned to speak and communicate. She became the first blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. Much of her life she gave lectures throughout the world, advocating for people with disabilities. In 1931, the American Bible Society presented Helen Keller with their first Braille Bible. She then gave them her 1908 raised-letter Bible. She was also a American Bible Society Board Member

In 1842, Samuel G. Howe, director of the Perkins Institute for the Blind in Boston, printed the first Bible in America for the blind. Howe went to Paris to purchase type and a press for a new system of type using raised letters. The American Bible Society and other Bible societies financed efforts to produce books for the blind using this “Line Letter” system, as it was called. (Bible for the Blind, Using Raised Letters, American Bible Society, 1909)

The point system of reading for the blind was developed in France by Charles Barbier and perfected by Louis Braille. It did not replace the “Line Letter” system in America until the end of the 19th century. The first American Braille Bible was published in 1911. The American Bible Society published its first Braille Bible in 1931.