About World Braille Day
What Is the Significance of World Braille Day?
World Braille Day celebrates the importance of Braille as a medium of communication for people who are blind and visually impaired. The day aims to promote awareness of the braille language, which strives to bridge the big divide between ordinary and specially-abled people.
World Braille Day commemorates the birth anniversary of Louis Braille, who is popularly known for inventing a language used by blind and visually impaired people.
The inventor of a widely used touch system of reading and writing for blind people was born at Coupvray, France. Permanently blinded at the age of three by a leatherworking awl in his father's saddle-making shop, Braille developed a system of writing that used, ironically, an awl-like stylus to punch marks in paper that could be felt and interpreted by people who are blind. The system was largely ignored until after Braille died in poverty, suffering from tuberculosis, at Paris, Jan 6, 1852.
It was the United Nations which, in its proclamation in 2018, decided to observe the event of World Braille Day on January 4th.
You can observe the day by spreading the importance of Braille on social media, or learn more about Braille at home with resources like those from the Perkins School for the Blind — which includes a fun rap song, mnemonics to remember dot patters and even free books.
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