World Braille Day lauds communication method for blind and partially sighted

World Braille Day aims to increase awareness of braille as a means of communication.

World Braille Day is celebrated annually on January 4. The event marks 214 years to the day of the birth of legendary Braille creator, Louis Braille.

Mr Braille was blinded in an accident at three years old, leading him to the creation of the six-dot code method of writing he coined as ‘braille’.

The UN General Assembly chose January 4 as World Braille Day in November 2018, a day that is now celebrated and recognised by many.

Braille is a system of raised that can be read with fingers, comprising of 63 dot characters in the Braille system.

As described by the UN, it is a “tactile representation of alphabetic and numerical symbols using six dots to represent each letter and number”, including “musical, mathematical and scientific symbols”.

World Braille Day aims to increase public awareness on the value of braille as a means of communication for the blind and those with partial vision.

Braille has remained almost unchanged since its creation, apart from the development of single symbols which were created for commonly used words in order to make reading quicker.

Among those in support of the event is the Lions Clubs, an international organisation which has “championed sight as a global cause for nearly 100 years”.

Lions Clubs in Ireland collect used eyeglasses for recycling and reuse in third world countries.

Club cabinet secretary, Karl Ó Broin, said: “As an organisation, we aim to champion all things related to sight and raise awareness of treatable and preventable blindness.” 

Among the events taking place on January 4 is the Inaugural Braille Conference, hosted by Sight and Sound Technology Ireland, in association with the Braillists Foundation.

The online event will feature a host of visually impaired speakers who will discuss the “continuing need for braille” and its potential for helping them unlock educational, employment and leisure opportunities.

Head of communications in NCBI, June Tinsley, revealed they are “marking World Braille Day through our social media channels this year highlighting the importance of the Braille language for people who are blind or vision impaired”.

Ms Tinsley said the NCBI are making an effort to show “how our services can support Braille readers either through our library or our technology service who can give training on Digital Braille readers”.