Context: International Braille Day has been observed on January 4 every year since 2019.
- The Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities organized extensive awareness programs to commemorate International Braille Day, focusing on Braille literacy.
About International Braille Day
- Establishment: It was established by the UN General Assembly in 2018 to commemorate the birth anniversary of French educator Louis Braille, the inventor of the Braille language.
- He invented a tactile system of reading and writing for the blind and visually impaired in 1824. Objective: To raise awareness of the importance of Braille as a means of communication for blind and partially sighted people.
- A Representation 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.Significance: Braille is essential in education, freedom of expression and opinion, and social inclusion, as reflected in Article 2 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
- The first Braille system was published in 1829 and was adopted by the National Institute for Blind Youth.
- Kerala Federation of the Blind started the first Braille printing press in 1986.
Disability in India
- As per Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, a disabled person has a long-term impairment that affects their physical, mental, intellectual, or sensory abilities.
- This impairment prevents them from participating fully and effectively in society.
- Main Categories of Disability:
- Behavioral or Emotional
- Sensory Impaired Disorders
- Physical
- Developmental
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Must Read: Disability Inclusion: What Is It? And ILO’s SPARK Project
News Source: PIB
6 Jan 2024
