 The handcrafted Haüy books all came in uncomfortable sizes and weights . They were laboriously constructed , exquisitely delicate , and greatly expensive to obtain : when Haüy 's school first opened , it had a total of three books . Despite their drawbacks , Haüy promoted their use with zeal . To him , the books presented a new and handsome system which would be readily approved by those with eyesight . Certainly no better method yet existed for the blind to read , and the books seemed – to the sighted – to offer the best achievable results . Braille and his schoolmates , however , could detect all too well the books ' crushing limitations . Nonetheless , Haüy 's well @-@ intentioned efforts still provided a breakthrough achievement – the recognition of the sense of touch as a workable strategy for sightless reading . Haüy 's only personal limitation was that he was " talking to the fingers [ with ] the language of the eye . " 
