The Federal Government of Nigeria has been urged to create Braille printing presses across the country as the international community marks the UN World Braille Day on January 4.
The joint call was made by the Nigeria Association of the Blind (NAB) on Wednesday in a state by the NAB president, Stanley Onyebuchi, and the Chairman of the Education Committee, Ibrahim Umar Abdulkarim.
According to the association, the Braille printing presses will enable blind and visually impaired students and those out of school to have their reading materials such as books, educational materials and magazines in Braille and increase accessibility.
The federal and state governments were called upon to solve the lack of Braille printing equipment for the blind, by purchasing and fitting at least one in the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
They called on the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, the National Commission for Persons with Disabilities and non-governmental organisations, local and international to assist them in achieving the objective.
“We the Nigeria Association of the Blind, join the rest of the world to observe this day as World Braille Day. We are observing it in memory of the wonderful achievements of Louis Braille who came up with the six-dotted tactual reading and writing method for the blind,” the statement read in part.
They also requested assistance from governments and non-governmental organisations to fund their proposed Braille Reading and Writing Competitions for 2024.
NAB also proposed home study courses in Braille for which certificates would be issued upon completion, in contrast to the Hadley Institute for the Blind and Visually Impaired in Winnetka, Illinois, USA.
What is Braille?
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.
It was invented by a French nationale known as Louis Braille in the 19th century.
Louis Braille’s reading and writing method was an improvement of Charles Barbier’s 12-dotted reading and writing for the Blind called in French Nocturne Egritude which in English means Night Writing.
He developed the six-dotted method after he became blind at age three while working in his father’s workshop. Following his blindness, his father enrolled him in the National Institute for the Young Blind, where he learned Charles Barbier’s 12-dotted reading and writing for the blind.