The world Braille Day is being celebrated on January 4, 2020.
World Braille Day, celebrated since 2019, is observed to raise awareness of the importance of Braille as a means of communication in the full realization of the human rights for blind and partially sighted people.
About World Braille Day
- The day is marked remembering the birth anniversary of Louis Braille, the inventor of Braille – for people with visual disabilities. Louis Braille was born on 4th January 1809 in the town of Coupvray in northern France.
- At the age of just 3, he lost both his eyes in an accident. This resulted in the invention of the language of 6 dots- which is popularly known as braille.
- The Regional News Unit of AIR Ahmedabad is the pioneer in live Braille news reading on Radio by a visually impaired person in India. The first such news bulletin was read by Mr Ranchhod Soni- a senior teacher of a school run by Blind People’s Association – in 2004, whose name was recorded in Limca Book of world records for reading first live braille news reading on Radio in India.
What is Braille?
- Braille is a tactile representation of alphabetic and numerical symbols using six dots to represent each letter and number, and even musical, mathematical and scientific symbols.
- Braille (named after its inventor in 19th century France, Louis Braille) is used by blind and partially sighted people to read the same books and periodicals as those printed in a visual font.
- Braille is essential in the context of education, freedom of expression and opinion, as well as social inclusion, as reflected in article 2 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
