World Braille Day

The Literacy Trust has produced a free resource for EYFS called ‘Introducing Young Children to World Braille Day’.

When Louis Braille invented braille, it reflected the French alphabet and grammatical symbols. Over the years, braille has evolved to meet the needs of people who speak different languages or need to access more modern information.

As well as reading and writing in English, there is also a range of braille codes across languages including languages like Japanese and Russian which do not use the Roman alphabet.

It’s also used for more than reading and writing text. There are also braille codes which enable braille readers to use mathematical and scientific symbols and read and write music notation.

There are also different grades of braille regularly used by people who are blind or have low vision. Grade One braille is commonly used for simple tasks like short messages or labelling items and is also used by those who are new to braille.

Grade Two braille includes dot patterns which represent “contractions” and aims to shorten words and condense the space needed for braille text.

The Vision Australia Print Access team can support you with all your braille production needs, while Vision Australia also provides braille training.

Today is World Braille Day which acknowledges that those with visual impairments deserve the same standard of human rights and access to written knowledge as everyone else.

The Ministry of Culture (MoC) organized Wednesday evening a panel discussion to mark the World Braille Day, in cooperation with the Ministry's Qatar Social and Cultural Center for Blind (QSCCB). The world observes on Jan. 4; World Braille Day - a worldwide celebration honoring Braille's importance as a communication tool for blind and low-vision individuals. The panel discussed ways to effectively involve the blind in the world of culture and provide them with alternative and advanced reading opportunities and techniques. It also reflected the MoCs commitment to promoting integration and improving the quality of life of all society segments. The Director of the Qatari Publishers and Distributors Forum, Riyad Ahmed Saleh highlighted the Forum's commitment to enabling the blind to access the world of culture and benefit from multi-sector publications. QSCCB Chairperson Faisal Al Kohaji stressed the Centers keenness to provide various cognitive and cultural support tools for its members, as a key social responsibility pillar that requires constant interaction between public and private educational and cultural agencies. Representatives of the Qatari publishers affirmed their endeavor to achieve the panel's outcomes aimed at developing alternative reading technologies and integrating them into the lives of the blind to meet their cultural, educational and cognitive needs. (QNA)

Today is World Braille Day. Declared by the United Nations General Assembly to mark the birthday of inventory Louis Braille, who created a system of raised dots that eventually became known as Braille. This tactile representation of alphabetic, numerical, musical, mathematical, and scientific symbols has become the main form of written communication for blind people and is celebrated on this special day for the visually impaired.

World Braille Day 2024

January 4, 2024, 1:00 AM - January 5, 2024, 1:00 AM

The Scottish Parliament recognises World Braille Day on 4 January 2024; understands that this day raises awareness about the importance of Braille and celebrates the legacy of Louis Braille; recognises that, in 2018, the United Nations General Assembly decided to make it an official observance; understands that World Braille Day promotes awareness of the importance of accessibility and inclusion in education and information in the digital age; believes that much can be done for people who have a visual impairment, and commends all of the advocacy that those celebrating World Braille Day do to promote Braille literacy and inclusion for people with visual impairments.

UN Geneva Director-General Tatiana Valovaya shares her thoughts on this occasion. Have a listen  https://is.gd/2v35TB

The braille alphabet uses a pattern throughout the alphabet. The easiest letter to learn is “a” which is Dot 1. Next, the letter “b” is Dot 1 and Dot 2, and “c” is Dot 1 and Dot 4. To make it simpler, we’ve included the dot configurations in the image and table below.

The second set of letters follow the pattern of adding a Dot 3 to each character in the first set of braille letters.

The last set of letters continues the pattern by adding a Dot 6 to the second set of letters. However, there is one exception that interrupts the pattern here. At the time Louis Braille invented the first version of the braille alphabet, the French language did not use the letter "w" so it is skipped. The braille letter "w" is instead created by Dots 2, 4, 5, 6.

The braille alphabet is used by people who are blind or visually impaired as a basis of the larger braille code for reading and writing. Blind kids and adults read braille by gliding their fingertips over the lines of embossed braille dots and write braille using a variety of tools including the Perkins Brailler. People who are sighted can learn braille as well, either by touch or using their vision. A great place for everyone to begin learning braille is with the braille alphabet.

This is a visual representation of the braille alphabet without contractions. To conserve space and increase reading speeds, the braille code contains 189 contractions.

Braille is the system of six raised dots created in 1821 by French schoolboy Louis Braille. It is the only medium through which children with profound or total loss of sight can learn to read and write. National Braille Press and supporters of literacy for blind people throughout the world celebrated the bicentennial of Louis Braille's birth in 2009.