The United Nations (UN) World Braille Day is annually observed across the globe on 4 January to raise awareness about the significance of Braille as a communication medium for people who are blind or partially sighted.
- The Day commemorates the birth anniversary of Louis Braille, a 19th-century French educator, who invented the Braille script for the blind and visually impaired in 1824.
4 January 2024 marks the observance of the 6th World Braille Day and the 215th birth anniversary of Louis Braille.
Background:
i.On 17 December 2018, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted the resolution A/RES/73/161 and proclaimed the 4 January of every year as World Braille Day.
ii.The 1st ever World Braille Day was observed on 4 January 2019.
What is Braille?
i.Braille is a universally accepted system of reading and writing named after its inventor Louis Braille.
ii.It is a tactile representation of alphabetic and numerical symbols using 6 dots to represent each letter and number.
- It aslo represents musical, mathematical, and scientific symbols.
iii.It is used by and for blind and partially sighted people to read the same books and periodicals as those printed in a visual font.
About Louis Braille:
i.Louis Braille was born in the village of Coupvray, France on 4 January 1809. At the age of 3, he accidentally wounded his right eye. At the age of 5, he was completely blind.
ii.In 1821, Louis learned of ‘night writing’ code, a tactile communication system created by the French Army Officer Charles Barbier.
- Charles Barbier created a 12-dot cryptography system for soldiers to use for night-time battlefield communication.
iii.It was the immediate precursor of the invention of the Braille system.
iv.At the age of 15, Louis Braille developed a simpler system using only a 6-dot code so that the blind could use a single index finger to feel and read.
v.The Braille system was first published in 1829; a more complete elaboration appeared in 1837.
UN’s Effort in Braille system:
i.The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CPRD) adopted in 2006, acknowledges the Braille system as a universal means of communication.
- It is regarded as essential in education, freedom of expression and opinion, access to information, and social inclusion for those who use it.
ii.As early as 1949, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) initiated efforts to establish Braille uniformity and in 1950, it effectively universalized the Braille alphabet.
iv.In 2005 UNESCO recognized the Braille system as a “vital language of communication, as legitimate as all other languages in the world.”
2024 Events in India:
On this occasion of World Braille Day, the National Institutes and Composite Regional Centres under the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD) of the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment organised a range of engaging programs at various locations across India
Key facts:
i.According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), over 2.2 billion people globally face near or distant vision impairment. Approximately 1 billion cases could have been prevented or remain unaddressed.
ii.The leading causes of vision impairment and blindness at a global level are refractive errors and cataracts.
