Days Until World Braille Day

About World Braille Day

January 4 marks the birthday of Louis Braille, born in 1809 in France, who invented the Braille reading and writing system for blind and visually impaired people while still a teenager, based on an earlier, more cumbersome military coding system.

The UN General Assembly formally designated the day in 2018, marking the significance of Braille as a means of communication and full realization of human rights for blind and partially sighted people.

The Braille system Louis Braille invented uses a six-dot cell capable of 63 possible combinations, adapted from a French army officer's earlier 12-dot "night writing" code developed for silent battlefield communication.

Braille's six-dot system was itself adapted from French army captain Charles Barbier's earlier "night writing" code, which Braille encountered as a student and significantly simplified during his teenage years.