His father, a full-time loomer, also held the job of ringing the Angelus bells in a local Premonstrant Abbey.

[3] 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 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.

Valentin Haüy was active in the political life of his time, and was secretary of the National Constituent Assembly elections of 1792, then civil commissioner.

In 1889, Maurice de La Sizeranne created an association dedicated to helping the blind and visually impaired, named for him.