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Celebrating World Braille Day<br />
January 4, <strong>2017</strong> was World<br />
Braille Day which marks<br />
the birthday of Louis<br />
Braille who created the<br />
tactile reading and writing<br />
system for blind and visuallyimpaired<br />
people. Braille lost his<br />
sight following an accident as a<br />
child and developed the system to<br />
enable blind and visually impaired<br />
people to read and write quickly<br />
and efficiently. It is based on a<br />
series of six dots in pairs on three<br />
rows, which represent alphabet<br />
letters and numbers. The dots are<br />
raised so that blind people can run<br />
their fingers over the top to read<br />
them.<br />
The system is used in public<br />
places and you will have probably<br />
noticed it on signs in buildings, on<br />
buses, on cash points etc as well<br />
as on packing for pharmaceutical<br />
products, food and on chemicals<br />
such as bleach.<br />
It is important to keep Braille<br />
alive as it gives blind people<br />
access to information where<br />
technology might not have<br />
developed yet. Agreements such<br />
as the Marrakesh Treaty will allow<br />
copyright exceptions for published<br />
works to be widely available in<br />
accessible formats ensuring that<br />
written materials are available<br />
across country borders. For<br />
example, this means that schools<br />
in wealthier countries would be<br />
able to send books to poorer<br />
countries.<br />
The Sheffield Royal Society for<br />
the Blind (SRSB) marked the day<br />
by giving an interview on Sheffield<br />
Live along with Alan Thorpe from<br />
Eyecan (an organisation that<br />
offers braille training), and also<br />
by attending a Braille Awareness<br />
Day at Dearne Valley College with<br />
samples and demonstrations of<br />
producing Braille.<br />
SRSB provides opportunity,<br />
support, friendship and services to<br />
blind and partially-sighted people<br />
in Sheffield, helping them to<br />
achieve whatever they wish to do<br />
and whatever they aspire to be.<br />
It supports over 3,600 visually<br />
impaired-people in Sheffield with<br />
a broad range of activities and<br />
services.<br />
In excess of 300 people access<br />
the services within its centre<br />
each week. Its residential home<br />
at Crosspool cares for up to 30<br />
people.<br />
The charity arranges Braille<br />
training classes for both visuallyimpaired<br />
and sighted people<br />
as required. If you do not have<br />
a sight problem, but a member<br />
of your family does, perhaps<br />
learning Braille might help you<br />
to support or communicate with<br />
them. You may be a teacher, or<br />
work in an organisation that wants<br />
to improve its support of people<br />
with sight problems or it could just<br />
be that you are simply interested<br />
in learning Braille. SRSB also<br />
arranges Braille transcription for<br />
other organisations.<br />
Contact SRSB for further<br />
information about this or any of<br />
their other services: www.srsb.org.<br />
ukinfo@srsb.org.uk or call 0114<br />
272 2757.<br />
Jane Peach, Sheffield Royal<br />
Society for the Blind<br />
St Chad’s Church, Linden Avenue, Woodseats<br />
Church Office: Linden Avenue, Sheffield S8 0GA<br />
Tel: (0114) 274 5086<br />
Page 10<br />
email: office@stchads.org<br />
website: www.stchads.org
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