WORLD BRAILLE DAY

World Braille Day on January 4 is celebrated to honour the birth of Braille’s inventor, Louis Braille. Braille’s gift to the world has brightened the lives of millions of people around the world who are blind or visually impaired, and they benefit from his work every day. The day also acknowledges that those with visual impairments deserve the same standard of human rights as everyone else.

History of World Braille Day

The term ‘Braille ‘was dabbed after its creator, Louis Braille was a French man who lost his eyesight as a child when he accidently stabbed himself in the eye with his father’s awl. From the age of 10 he spent time at the Royal Institute for Blind Youth in France, where he formulated and perfected the system of raised dots that eventually became known as Braille.

Braille completed his work, developing a code based on six dots, making it possible for a fingertip to feel the entire cell unit with one touch and moving quickly from one cell to the next. Eventually, Braille slowly came to be accepted throughout the world as the main form of written information for Blind people. Unfortunately, Braille didn’t have the opportunity to see how useful his invention had become. He passed away in 1852, two years before the Royal Institute began teaching Braille.

Braille’s marvellous aid that opened up a world accessibility to the blind and visually impaired was recognized by the United Nations general Assembly (UNGA). In November 2018, January 4^th was declared World Braile Day. The first-ever World Braille Day was commemorated the following year and it was celebrated as an international holiday.