Did you know that over 1 billion people have some form of visual impairment. This could mean their being discriminated in education system for many especially in developing countries.
January 04 is World Braille Day. In 2019, the United Nations declared the day to emphasize the importance of braille and the need for inclusion especially for the visually impaired. Braille is an assistive tool that enables the visually impaired to read and write.
One Accessibility Initiative has been creating awareness about braille through our posts on Connect and meet-ups.
Caption: Local Guides looking at a toilet with braille and accessibility signs at a train station in San Jose, during a meetup organized by Emeka Ulor.
With such awareness and commemoration, we have seen increase in the provision of braille at restaurants as part of a menu, at entrances, toilet doors, airports, bus and train stations.
In schools, we are seeing braille books as part of classroom reading materials which would remove learning barriers for the visually impaired students. There are braille maps and other learning kits making education inclusive for everyone.
Have you seen braille, as a Local Guide? Have you added this information to your reviews to help PwDs make informed decisions?
Let’s continue to help make the world more accessible for everyone everywhere.
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Yes I have seen braille. First time was about 2013 at the National Library Abuja, Nigeria if I’m not mistaking.
Thank you for always educating us on issues relating to accessibility @EmekaUlor
Braille is not very popular around Lagos I must say.
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you have made a great point @EmekaUlor . It is actually very important to learn this alphabet. We hope more people will help people by learning this alphabet. 
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@MrFreez Thank you for sharing. Nice to know they have braille at the National Library. True, it is not popular in Lagos and across Nigeria but with more awareness it would gradually be made available especially at public places like schools, restaurants and churches, hopefully.
@Gezendunyali thank you for your kind words. Yes, we should make braille available for use everywhere especially in schools.
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out of curiosity @EmekaUlor how do visually impaired people know how to read Braille. Certainly it’s not an innate ability, is it? I wonder same thing for deaf people, so they just know sign language because they are ?
Must be some horrid task to learn braille, isn’t it?
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@MrFreez your curiosity is valid. Nobody naturally knows how to read and write. We learnt these skills right? So also for the PwDs - the visually impaired and hard of hearing could learn from home or school. There are such educational institutions that train PwDs to learn these skills. It is not difficult learning how to use braille or sign language, it is a matter of time 
. Just like coding and learning a foreign language…
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Thank you brother @EmekaUlor
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Yo @EmekaUlor !
Thank you for sharing this interesting info! I didn’t know about the existence of the Braille Day.
In my case, I’ve seen braille in a Starbucks here in Buenos Aires. I asked about the accesibility features they had (because they had a sign at the door) and they brought a menu completely written in Braille. It was really interesting.
I’ve seen also different signs mainly in museums written in Braille.
Thank you so much for sharing!
Ceci
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Thanks for sharing this. I have heard of Braille been used in all of the circumstances you mentioned above but I have been most impressed by Braille I have seen on my Hotel room door.
I thought it was cool for the Hotel to think that someone should be able to find their room more easily and the room design was cool too, easy to navigate.
Thanks for keeping up with these series, sir @EmekaUlor
GAAD to the world
@MrFreez good morning sir. I just wanted to add; I guess it can only be that difficult if the person has no fingers. But I know you know, it is just a part of our innate ability to Wonder.
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Hi @EmekaUlor thanks for sharing. Lets continue our support by adding braille availability in the public facilities while doing our review in google maps.
Nowadays, some big cities in Indonesia we can find button with braille in lift with on several office buildings, malls and hotels. We can find it also on the menus at some restaurants as well.
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@Cecilita interesting to know that you requested to know their accessibility provisions.
@Ewaade_3A it is always a joy to see accessibility/inclusive features at unexpected places. As it becomes a norm, it won’t be a surprise. Thank you.
@doc_dells true. Pushing awareness and the advocacy is making impact. Let’s do more.
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Hi @EmekaUlor Agree, lets continue our support to make the world more accessible 
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I think this article is great because it highlights the importance of accessibility for people with vision impairments. World Braille Day is an important reminder of how important it is to ensure that people with disabilities can access information and services. It’s also great to see how technology is being used to create more accessible products and services. It’s great to see how far we have come, but it’s also important to remember that much work still needs to be done. @EmekaUlor Thank you for this article!
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