3 January 2020

World Braille Day – let’s celebrate

Braille is an incredible reading and writing system, invented by Frenchman Louis Braille. Louis Braille was born on January 4th 1809, so every year on that day we celebrate World Braille Day.

The day recognises the contribution Braille makes to blind and visually impaired people around the world.

Great thing about Braille

Braille enables blind and visually impaired people around the world to

• read and write
• have independence; and
• achieve better educational and employment outcomes.

…and much more!

Is Braille being replaced by technology?

Although modern technology has provided an array of important new products and tools such as audio books and text-to-speech software, Braille is the only way blind people can be truly literate. In addition to reading documents for education, work, and leisure, Blind and visually impaired people can use Braille for everything from shopping lists to labels for canned goods, from novels to board and card games, and from maths to music.

Far from dying out, we all now see Braille more and more in everyday places, such as on buttons in lifts and cash machines, on the doors of public toilets, on food and medicine packaging, toiletries, and cleaning products.

Why World Braille day?

 Unfortunately, there are still a lot of documents out there that are not provided in Braille, or in any other accessible format. World Braille Day spreads awareness about Braille and other accessible forms of communication to try to combat this.

Remember, someone needs a document in Braille you should just be able ask for it. Everyone should have equal access to information, and under the Equality Act 2010 service providers should make all reasonable adjustments to meet your request.

If you get a request for Braille, A2i will be happy to help! For a chat about your accessible information needs with our friendly team, get in touch!