January is National Braille Literacy Month
Contributor: The I.D.E.A Committee
January is National Braille Literacy Month, celebrating Louis Braille, who invented the code in 1824 as a way for blind and visually impaired people to read information. Braille is a code that has six raised dots in a cell. The patterns in the cell represent different letters, punctuation, typefaces and even music notes.
A Few Interesting Facts: Did you know that...
- Louis Braille lost his eyesight at 3 years old. He was only 12 when he started working on Braille and was 15 when he introduced it to his classmates.
- Braille is based on a code by French army officer Charles Barbier who created a 12-dot cryptography system for night-time battlefield communication.
- Braille is not a language, it’s a tactile code. Many languages can be inscribed in Braille.
- Uncontracted braille is where each letter is represented by a cell and contracted braille is a “shorthand” where common letter combinations and words are represented by one or more cells.
- There are no generally accepted definitions for “visually impaired,” “low vision,” or “vision loss.” The National Federation of the Blind encourages anyone who must use alternative methods to engage in any activity that people with normal vision would do using their eyes even with corrective lenses to consider themselves blind.
- According to the CDC, vision disability is one of the top 10 disabilities among adults 18 years and older and one of the most prevalent disabling conditions among children. An estimated 93 million adults in the United States are at high risk for serious vision loss, but only half visited an eye doctor in the past 12 months.
Things to Consider
- When posting a picture, make sure you include alt-text, a description of the image for screen readers. During presentations, verbally describe charts, graphs, and other visual aids used.
- Braille Literacy is a vital component to independence and employment for people who are blind or visually impaired.
- Many blind people consider braille to be an important part of literacy, just as seeing people believe being able to read print is an important skill.
Additional Resources
The Braille Group of Buffalo - https://www.braillegroup.org/
How to check if a website is accessible - https://www.boia.org/blog/5-quick-ways-to-self-check-the-accessibility-of-a-website
National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled at the Library of Congress - https://www.loc.gov/nls/
The Braille Challenge from the Braille Institute - https://brailleinstitute.org/braille-challenge/about
Braille Bug - https://braillebug.org/
Sources:
https://www.cdc.gov/visionhealth/basics/ced/fastfacts.htm
https://www.perkins.org/celebrating-braille-literacy-month/
https://www.pathstoliteracy.org/resource/thoughts-users-braille-still-relevant-high-tech-world/
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