World Braille Day 

Since 2019, World Braille Day is held on the 4th of January annually. The aim of this event is to awaken human rights for disabled people and to raise awareness of the importance of the Braille system for the blind or partially sighted persons as means of communication and education. 

History of Braille 

Image Credit: Reading A-Z (Louis Braille) 

A French blind teacher, Louis Braille (1809-1852) invented the Braille system in 1824. 

At the age of 3, Louis was involved in an accident in his father’s workshop, his right eye wounded with a cobbler’s tool. Unfortunately, there wasn’t any cure or medical knowledge that could save his eyesight at the time. Thus, his left eye became inflamed due to subsequent sympathetic ophthalmia, leaving him completely blind at the age of 5. 

Louis attended a special school for blind people in Paris in 1819. Before the birth of the Braille system, the Haüy system was used, which is an embossed letter system for partially visible impaired people. However, it was a complicated and slow method, as students had to trace huge raised letters to read each page. In 1812, a soldier named Charles Barbier came to his school and introduced an inventive note taking system of 12 raised dots on paper for soldiers to read and write in the dark. Each set of dots represented common French sounds, but Barbier’s method was not well accepted by the army. 

Louis was inspired by Charles Barbier’s invention and knew he could make the code simpler. Louis then spent the next 3 years improving Barbier’s idea, succeeding in creating the revolutionary Braille system using only sets of six dots. Each set stood for an alphabet letter rather than sound. Later on, Louis continued his ambition as a teacher and constantly improved his code. Now, the Braille system is used all around the world, adapting to almost every language from Albanian to Zulu. 

Importance of Braille 

Image Credits: Reading A-Z

As stated in the article 2 of the Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Braille is a necessity for quality education, freedom of expression and opinion, and social inclusion for persons with disability.  

Braille is a universal system of writing for the blind by using characters made up of 6 raised dots arranged in a 3 x 2 matrix, called the braille cell. Each letter and number are assigned to the dot patterns. Using their sense of touch by moving their fingertips from left to right across the lines of dots, people are able to figure out the Braille code and carry on with their study or communication. You will need to have reasonably good finger sensitivity to be able to read Braille through touch. 

Braille codes for nearly every language, and can also represent musical, mathematical, computing and scientific symbols. 

Some examples on how to read Braille code: 

Image Credit: Wikihow (Learning the letters of the alphabet) 

The letter a has dot 1 only, while the letter b has dot 1 and dot 2. The letter c has dot 1 and dot 4. The letter d has dots 1, 4, and 5. 

Image Credit: Wikihow (Understanding Punctuation and Symbols) 

A cell with a single dot 6 in front of a word indicates that the first letter word is capitalised. The preceding 2 cells with only dot 6 indicates that the whole word is written in all caps. 

Future of Braille 

As the world revolves, there is debate as to whether braille will be replaced by many new technologies available to blind people, making braille far more usable, easier and portable.  Storage of a whole braille book can be done on a USB flashdrives or memory stick, reducing the printing of Braille books and storage spaces on shelves. Despite the possibility of braille being replaced by technological advances someday, the invention of the printing press has not reduced the use of pens, so braille may remain useful for daily use.

"Braille is your paper and pencil in life. It does not rely on battery and mains adapters, and its system never crashes! It should be used in conjunction with modern technology to enable you to take full advantage of what life has to offer."- Jenny 

Reference:

1. IDEAS IN ALL. The World Braille Day: Celebrating the Importance of Braille for the Full Realization of Human Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Available from https://www.ideasinall.com/the-world-braille-day-celebrating-the-importance-of-braille-for-the-full-realization-of-human-rights-of-persons-with-disabilities/ 
2. Firstpost. World Braille Day 2021: History, significance of day and how the communication system helps visually impaired individuals. Available from https://www.firstpost.com/india/world-braille-day-2021-history-significance-of-day-and-how-the-communication-system-helps-visually-impaired-individuals-9169501.html 
3. Reading A-Z. Louis Braille. Available from https://walltownps.entest.org/Louis%20Braille.pdf 
4. RNIB. Future of braille. Available from https://www.rnib.org.uk/braille-and-other-tactile-codes-portal-braille-past-present-and-future/future-braille 
5. Wikihow. 4 Ways to Read Braille. Available from https://www.wikihow.com/Read-Braille   

Written by

Ms. Rosamund Koo Wei Xin