World Braille day was celebrated on Jan 4
th 2017. It is celebrated every year on this day across the world to commemorate the birth of French inventor Louis Braille.
Braille invented the Braille language which helps blind people to read as well as write.At the age of 3, he accidentally became blind. However, he had a great yearning to be able to read and write properly, despite his disability.
He developed the Braille language at the age of 15. Louis's work was not only confined to alphabets. He was passionate about music too, and thus, in the latter part of his life, he even developed Braille language for music.
He published his system in 1829.
He was offered a professorship in 1833, teaching history, geometry and algebra, as well as his own system of Braille. He published books explaining how to use his code, which included dots and dashes for demonstration.
The system of Braille was adopted in schools in 1856.
On World Braille Day, awareness is also raised about the new technologies coming in the field of Braille language on this day.
The World Braille Day in 2009 marked the 200th birthday anniversary of Louis Braille.
Braille and Visual Impairment: Know More- Around 285 million people are estimated to be visually impaired worldwide.
- According to National Braille Week, around 150 million people use Braille.
- This is a code system of raised dots – as a form of literacy, as it allows users to spell, use punctuation and format text on a page.
- Louis Braille, was born on 4 January 1809 in the town of Coupvray in northern France.
- By the time he was five, he was blind in both eyes, but the tragic accident lead to the birth of braille.
- Braille at the age of 15, had formed six dots which could be used in 63 ways to form a code with the fingertips.
- His code was easily adapted to fit languages other than French, allowing the blind and visually impaired to read more easily.
