World Braille Day — 2019

World Braille Day — celebrates the birth of Louis Braille, inventor of the braille system, and to bring awareness to the Marrakesh Treaty.

Since its development in 1821, blind persons were able to access knowledge the way their sighted peers did. They can participate in society and gain knowledge.

However, due to copyright laws, many published materials are not translated into Braille, especially in developing countries.

The Marrakesh Treaty allows for such exceptions to give visual impaired communities to access their right to education. As of 2019, only 80 out of 195 countries have signed the Treaty. (It was not until the year 2018 that the European Union and the United States have ratified the Treaty.)

Therefore, we must continue to bring attention to World Braille Day to give our peers the adequate tools to acquire their basic human right of knowledge.