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World Braille Day is an annual celebration observed on January 4th of every year. There are millions of visually impaired people living in the world. Unlike normal human beings, these people will not be able to read and write with the help of their eyes. As communication is a vital tool for any living in the world, and to let those people come out of such circumstances, Louis Braille, a French educator, invented a new system called Braille Code that made visually challenged people learn and write. As to honor and appreciate the work of Louis Braille, who brought the Braille system of learning to the world, his birth anniversary is celebrated as World Braille Day. The Day also raises awareness about issues the visually challenged person faces along with the importance of providing those people with access to reading and learning using Braille.
“Louis Braille created the code of raised dots for reading and writing that bears his name and brings literacy, independence, and productivity to the blind.” – Bob Ney
History of World Braille Day
The year in which World Braille Day is celebrated is anonymous. But this celebration Day is commemorated on the birthday of Louis Braille to honor his incredible work called Braille. He was born in France on January 4th, 1809. His system has helped visually impaired people globally to read and write. As to appreciating and recognizing his work for the betterment of the visually impaired, this celebration day has been created. Both the eyes of Louis Braille got blinded as a result of an early childhood accident. Despite it, Braille has mastered his disability while still a boy. Being a student at France’s Royal Institute for Blind Youth, he began developing a system of tactile code that would let blind people read and write quickly and efficiently.
Braille, on getting inspiration from the military cryptography Charles Barbier has constructed a new method specifically for the needs of the visually impaired. He presented his work to his peers for the first time in 1824 when he was fifteen years old. It used bumps and indentation to represent the letters and numbers. Those who have visual problems can recognize it with the touch of their finger. His system remains virtually unchanged until now and is known worldwide simply as braille. The original version of Braille’s code was arranged in the form of small rectangular blocks called cells. It has dots in a 3 x 2 pattern that is raised.
Every cell represented a letter, number, or punctuation. All the languages and certain subjects like mathematics, music, and computer programming can be read and written in this form since Braille is a code. Braille published his first book in 1829 about the system he had created. It is named “Method of Writing Words, Music, and Plain Songs by Means of Dots, for Use by the Blind and Arranged for Them.” The simplicity of this idea has allowed the books to begin their production on a large scale as this format made thousands of blind people read just by using their fingertips over the dots.
Other Celebrations on January 4
January 4 is also celebrated as
How to Celebrate World Braille Day
Celebrating World Braille Day is quite simple. Make this Day as the best opportunity to introduce the books available in braille code to the person who you know is either visually impaired or partially sighted. Let them learn everything like normal human beings. It is a form of honoring Louis Braille’s work for the visually impaired. Ensure you take braille books of your country as languages vary from all over the world. You can even be a part of the awareness program conducted by a Non-governmental organization (NGO). Create awareness about the problems and challenges faced by visually impaired individuals. Celebrate the people with such disabilities as visually challenged or impaired, and don’t call them simply blind. Share your photos of braille day awareness events on social media using the hashtag #WorldBrailleDay.
Thank you for reading the post. You can celebrate every day with Happydays365.org and Happy World Braille Day 2024.