2018 World Braille Day (WBD)

The World Braille Day (WBD) is observed every year on January 4 to remember the birth anniversary of Louis Braille, the inventor of Braille – for the people with visual disabilities. Louis Braille was born on 4th January 1809 in the town of Coupvray in northern France. At the age of just 3, he lost his both eyes in an accident. This resulted into the invention of the 6 dots- which is popularly known as braille. The day is also observed to raise awareness on the importance of Braille for approximately 1.3 billion people living with some form of distance or near vision impairment. It is a means of realizing fully the human rights of visually-impaired and partially-sighted people, and bringing written language to the forefront as a critical prerequisite for promoting fundamental freedoms. Around the world, 39 million people are blind, and another 253 million have some sort of vision impairment.