World Braille Day 2023: To commemorate the birth of Louis Braille, the inventor of Braille, January 4 is marked as World Braille Day. This day also recognizes that blind people must have the same access to human rights as everyone else.
Braille is an essential means of communication for blind and visually impaired people – and can help achieve #GlobalGoals.
The fourth is #WorldBrailleDay: https://t.co/ic3foNhQjd pic.twitter.com/B0ijbkfNTd
— United Nations (@UN)
January 3, 2023
What is the braille system?
Each letter of the alphabet and each number is represented by six dots in a tactile writing system called Braille. Additionally, the dots represent mathematical, scientific, and musical symbols. People who are blind or visually impaired can read and write using this system. They can read books with visual fonts in Braille.
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World Braille Day 2023: History
January 4, 2023 is observed as World Braille Day to promote understanding of the importance of Braille as a form of communication and the full realization of human rights for people who are visually impaired or blind. The United Nations General Assembly declared January 4 as World Braille Day in November 2018. The following year, World Braille Day was celebrated and recognized as a global holiday for the first time.
UNGA chose the date of the commemoration in a statement, which was also Louis Braille’s birthday. When Louis Braille was a child, he accidentally stabbed himself in the eye with his father’s awl, causing him to lose his sight. He spent time working at the Royal Institute for Blind Youth in France starting at age 10, where he developed and perfected the system of raised dots that eventually became known as Braille. Unfortunately, Braille was not able to witness the usefulness of his creation. Two years before the Royal Institution began teaching Braille, in 1852, he died.
World Braille Day 2023: Meaning
Braille has gradually become accepted as the primary written information format for blind people worldwide. The purpose of this day is to promote understanding of the value of Braille as a communication tool and the full realization of human rights for people who are blind or visually impaired.
According to a report by the World Health Organization, blind people have higher rates of poverty and suffer lifelong inequality. According to reports, the problem has become more serious since the pandemic.
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World Braille Day 2023: Interesting facts
- Developed by the French army in 1819, soldiers used Braille to communicate at night without speaking or using candles.
- In 1999, NASA’s Deep Space 1 passed by an asteroid on its way to photograph Comet Borrelly and named it ‘9969 Braille’ in recognition of Louis Braille.
- Braille is an alphabet that can be used to write almost any language and is available in versions in Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew, Spanish, etc.
- Unabridged braille spells out individual words, while abridged braille is a shorthand version of familiar words.
- There is a unique version of Braille specifically for math and science, called Nemeth Code.
- Family classics like Uno, Monopoly and LEGO all come in Braille versions.
- An annual competition for visually impaired students, the Braille Institute hosts more than 1,400 students from the United States and Canada to test their Braille skills.
- While a sighted person can read 300 words per minute, some fast Braille readers can flip through a book at a rate of 400 words per minute.
World Braille Day provides an opportunity to promote dialogue about the Disability Rights Act and the prevention, identification and treatment of eye diseases. The challenges that blind and visually impaired people face every day are also highlighted on World Braille Day. Braille Day also draws attention to the government’s disregard for the blind.
Categories: Optical Illusion
Source: pagasa.edu.vn