The CRL Rights Commission's mandate is to promote and protect Cultural, Religious and Language rights of the citizens of South Africa. The Commission will tomorrow be joining countries of the world in celebrating World Braille Day. Every year, World Braille Day is celebrated worldwide on 4 January in honour of the revolution that was brought by Louise Braille in the lives of the blind.
Braille is a system of touch reading and writing that utilises dots to represent letters and the alphabet that the blind and virtually impaired use to read and write. The system includes symbols to represent punctuation, mathematics and scientific characters, computer notation, etc. Braille language has contributed economically and socially by bringing opportunities to blind people. Through this system, the blind can educate themselves and become more independent. The ability to read and write in Braille opens doors to literacy, equal opportunity and personal security to the blind. The biggest advantage of this system is that it can be translated into any language.
As World Braille Day is organised and celebrated toencourage communities tounite together and to bringin the help for theblind communities, the CRL Rights Commission would like to encourage Government Departments and Community Councils working with blind people to keep on promoting their work and to continue educating others on issues affecting the blind. Other stakeholders are also encouraged to make available their brochures and posters in Braille Language so that the blind can access information.
Media contact:
Ms Botle Letsebe (Marketing and Communications Officer)
Cell: 079 238 1485
Tel: 011 537 7625
