Celebrating Louis Braille, the man who invented Braille System

Braille is a tactile representation of alphabetic and numerical symbols using six dots to represent each letter and number, and even musical, mathematical and scientific symbols. In simpler words, Braille is a from of written language for blind people, in which characters are represented by patterns of raised dots that are felt with the fingertips.

The Braille system is named after its inventor who lived in 19th century France and is used by bind and partially sighted people to read the same books and periodicals as those printed in a visual font.

According to article 2 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Braille is essential in the context of education, freedom of expression and opinion, as well as social inclusion.

The World Braille Day is celebrated on the birthday of the inventor of the braille system, Louis Braille. He was born on the 4^th of January, 1809 at Coupvray in France. When he was three years old, he got into an accident while playing in his father's harness making shop and went blind in one eye. Later on in his life, he had an infection which spread to both his eyes. By the time he was five years old, he had become fully blind in both eyes.

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Although in those days there were not a lot of resources for blind people, Louis Braille excelled in his education and received a scholarship to France's Royal Institute for the Blind. Louis started to develop a new code that would help blind people to read and write quickly and efficiently, while he was still a student. He took inspiration from Charles Barbier's system and constructed a new method.

Bust of Louis Braille, inventor of the Braille systemWikipedia

This day is celebrated internationally to spread awareness about the importance of Braille as a means of communication in the full realization of the human rights for blind and partially sighted people. The United Nations General Assembly choose this particular date to honour the creator of the system. On the 4^th of January 2019, World Braille Day was celebrated for the first time.

In the current world, Braille is used in nearly every language and all these languages have a separate braille code. A lot of different games are also being made available in Braille, like the Rubik's Cube, LEGO's and the popular card game UNO.

In Italy, there is a medieval fortress located on Vomero Hill, which is adjacent to Certosa di San Martino. This fortress is called Castel Sant'Elmo. From this castle, tourists can enjoy a beautiful view of the city of Naples. Already famous for the breathtaking view that it offers, the Castle got even more popularity after a railing was installed in one of its large windows overlooking the city.

The railing is a 92 feet long stainless-steel piece which was installed very recently. On this railing, there is "a poetic description of the view in Braille". The artwork was installed by an artist named Paolo Puddu in 2017 and it has been a permanent fixture in the castle from 2019. Blind people visiting the castle can now read the braille engraving and comprehend the beauty of the view. The installation is called 'Follow the Shape'.

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