World Braille Day on January 4 is celebrated to honor the birth of Braille’s inventor, Louis Braille. Braille’s gift to the world has brightened the lives of millions of people around the world who are blind or visually impaired. Louis Braille was a Frenchman who lost his eyesight as a child when he accidentally stabbed himself in the eye with his father’s awl. From the age of 10, he spent time at the Royal Institute for Blind Youth in France, where he formulated and perfected the system of raised dots that eventually became known as Braille. The Braille system was first published in 1829 and was quickly adopted by the National Institute for Blind Youth. The theme of the vision of the World Blind Union (WBU) is “a world in which the rights and dignity of blind and partially sighted people are respected and they can fully participate on an equal basis with others in all aspects of life.”
