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World Braille Day 2024
World Braille Day celebrates the birthday of Louise Braille (the creator of the Braille-system). The aim is to highlight the importance of independence and accessibility for people affected by blindness or visual impairment. Louis Braille, who was blind himself, invented the Braille-system already as a 15-year-old young man. The system is still called by his name and used all over the world, although over the years it has been refined and simplified. It has made life easier for many who suffer from blindness and visual impairment worldwide, and this day is well worth paying attention to!
How braille works
The system that Louis Braille developed is a type of writing that can be identified by feeling. Each letter consists of one or more raised dots within a certain, limited area. In this area, called cell, there are six points distributed in two columns and three rows. By combining the points according to a system within the cell, 63 different characters can be formed (in computing, eight points are used, which allows for 255 different combinations).
With the help of a special numeric character, not only letters but also numbers can be entered in Braille. The characters are read by moving the fingers over the braille cells and decoded with the so-called finger flower, which sits on the outermost tip of the finger. Braille works on paper, but there are also so-called Braille displays that can be connected to a computer and these can be used for both reading and writing.
