RNIB Scotland celebrates the importance of braille

RNIB Scotland has celebrated the value of braille following the anniversary of Louis Braille’s birth on Tuesday (January 4).

The inventor of braille was born in France in 1809. He created a communication system with variations of six raised dots, arranged in two columns of three.

Director of RNIB Scotland, James Adams, highlighted that braille enabled people with sight loss to actively engage with the world again.

“The invention of braille is often compared to the invention of the printing press for sighted people. For thousands across the world, braille means independence, knowledge and freedom," he said.

Ken Reid, 62, from North Berwick, began to lose his sight in his 20s.

He shared that braille is the closest thing to sighted reading that is available to blind and partially sighted people.

"We're not dependent on the intermediary of a narrator to get a flavour of a book. Any characters and nuances of plot will be influenced only by our own interpretation,” Reid said.

RNIB has 10,400 braille library master-files for books. The charity also has braille master-files for music scores, maths and science books, codes and maps.

RNIB transcribes magazines into braille, with TV guides the most popular content for this service.