World Braille Day is celebrated annually on January 4. It was proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in 2018 and has been held since 2019 on the birthday of the French genius, the alphabet creator for the blind Louis Braille (1809-1852).

Braille is a tactile system with six convex dots representing alphanumeric and numeric characters. With its help, blind and visually impaired people can read and write. The hexagon is about six millimeters high, and the distance between the dots is two millimeters. The system provides 64 possible combinations, and one six-dot corresponds to one character.

In 1837, the first book on the Braille system was published under “History of France”. In 1838, an arithmetic textbook for blind people was published.

In 1850, the Braille system was officially introduced into the literacy program for students of the Paris Institute for Blind Children. In 1878, it received official recognition in France at the International Congress of Typhlopedagogues.

Braille has been adapted to many world languages, and thousands of books have been printed in different countries. Despite widespread computerization, Braille remains the foundation of literacy for blind people.

There are at least 2.2 billion visually impaired people in the world.

On February 19, 2021, the Constitution of Uzbekistan and the Law of the Republic “On the rights of persons with disabilities”, published in Braille for the first time in the country, were presented in Tashkent.

World Braille Day is an opportunity to show solidarity and support for blind and visually impaired people and take measures to improve their quality of life.

Aziza Alimova, UzA