World Braille Day
World Braille Day is annually celebrated on January 4, the
birthday of Braille inventor, Louis Braille. The day recognizes the
contributions of Louis Braille in helping blind and visually impaired people to
read and write.
Celebrate World Braille Day Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) around the
world use this day to create awareness about the challenges faced by visually
impaired individuals and to encourage businesses and governments to create
economic and social opportunities for the blind. NGOs and disability
organizations hold competitions and public outreach events. Teachers in schools
teach the history of braille to their students.
Public Life World Braille Day is not an official holiday and businesses
and government offices stay open on this day.
About World Braille Day Braille is a code that uses bumps and indentation on
a surface to represent letters, which can be recognized by touch. Louis
Braille, a French man who was blinded in an accident at a very young age,
invented it. Before Braille invented this form of communication, visually
impaired people read and wrote using the Haüy system which embossed Latin
letters on thick paper or leather. This was a complicated system that required
much training and only allowed people to read, not write. Discouraged by this,
Braille at the age of 15 invented the Braille code. While there are now several
different versions of Braille, Louis Braille’s code was arranged in small
rectangular blocks called cells with raised dots in a 3 x 2 pattern. Each cell
represented a letter, number or punctuation.
Since Braille is a code, all languages and even certain
subjects like mathematics, music and computer programming can be read and
written in braille.
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