World Braille Day 2023: Facts You Need To Know About Braille Language

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Every year 4 January is celebrated as World Braille Day to mark the birth anniversary of Louis Braille, the man who invented Braille language.

For people who don't know, this is the language used by blind and visually impaired people for reading and writing. It was in 2018 when the United Nations (UN) declared 4 January to be a day of International significance.

In order to know more about this day, Braille language and its invention, scroll down the article to know more about this day.

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1. Louis Braille was a Frenchman who thought of inventing a language for blind people after he lost his eyesight during his childhood in an unfortunate incident.

2. It was in the year 1824he was a 15-year-old boy, and yet he developed an alphabetical code that could be used for night writing language. Later in 1829, this code included musical notation, which was then revised in 1837 and had raised dots in rectangular blocks.

3. Later this revised night writing language was named Braille Language to honour the inventor.

4. Initially, Braille language was based on the night writing system of Charles Barbier. However, Louis Braille revised the language and made it better for blind people to use it for reading and writing.

5. Braille language not only includes raised dots but also raised arrows, bullets series of dots, lines, etc. A Braille cell will include six raised dots which are arranged in two separate columns, each having three dots.

6. Braille language is considered a connecting bridge between visually challenged people and the ones who can see.

7. The intention behind celebrating World Braille Day is to encourage society and business organisations to give job opportunities to people who are visually challenged.

8. On Braille Day, several NGOs and organisations across the world organise essay writing competitions, debate competitions and many other co-curricular activities to create awareness among people and encourage people to make society more inclusive.

9. It is often seen that hotel and restaurant owners do not present their menu for blind people in Braille language and therefore, those who are working for the welfare of visually impaired people, look forward to bringing some positive change through this day.

10. Today schools across the world, especially in the United Kingdom (UK), have Braille language in their curriculum for their visually challenged students to make school education more inclusive, but it was introduced in UK schools in 1916 only.