World Braille Day: Remembering the man who had a vision for the blind

First Published Jan 4, 2020, 4:59 PM IST

World Braille Day is celebrated on January 4 every year around the world to commemorate the birthday of Louis Braille

Born on January 4, 1809, Louis Braille was a French educator and inventor of a system of reading and writing for the blind and visually impaired.
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Louis Braille was blinded by an accident when he was three.
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Louis was blind in both eyes but overcame challenges while still a boy. He excelled in his education and received a scholarship to Frances Royal Institute for Blind Youth.
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While he was still a student, he began developing a system of tactile code that could allow blind people to read and write quickly and efficiently.
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Braille is a system of reading and writing by touch. It consists of arrangements of dots which make up letters of the alphabet, numbers, and punctuation marks.
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Around 39 million people across the world are blind and another 253 million have some sort of vision impairment.
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Braille provides a tactical representation of alphabetic and numerical symbols so blind and partially sighted people are able to read the same book and periodicals available in standard text form.
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The ability to read and write in Braille opens up many opportunities for those who are visually impaired, and sets them on a path to independence
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