World Braille Day: Sight without seeing

World Braille Day is celebrated on the 4th of January of every year same day as the birthday of Louis Braille who became blind after a childhood accident. At 15, he created a reading and writing system based on Charles Barber’s night writing system which is now known as “Braille.” 

Braille is used by partially sighted and blind people to read books and periodicals. Braille is a representation of numerical symbols and alphabets, using six dots to represent each letter and number; including mathematical, musical and scientific symbols.

Blindness is the lack of vision or the inability to see. Before someone completely goes blind there are symptoms that could occur such as; blurry vision, eye pain and  photophobia. Aside from these symptoms there are other factors that can lead to blindness like exposing your eyes to chemicals, toxins and fireworks. Accidents from sports, vehicles, industry can also lead to vision loss or total blindness. 

Treatment for blindness varies depending on its type. Some just require using glasses or medications. But when the eyes are completely missing or damaged; visual rehabilitation is mostly recommended.

If you’re with a low vision, there is a way you can make your environment comfortable for yourself. It is important you remove any appliances or home devices that could cause hindrance for your movement. Also make sure to install good lighting in your house; you don’t have to strain your eyes to see things clearly.

Being visually impaired could be overwhelming. But a blind person can be happy and live a normal life just like a person with sight. It is pleasant to acknowledge the fact a blind person may not have the privilege of reading this article but you as a friend, colleague or even family can be of help. The following are advice you can give to a blind person:

The person has to accept the reality of being blind by adapting to its lifestyle and being optimistic of a better life. 

Sometimes it is okay to grieve over loss of vision. Because this emotion would lead the person into knowing how to deal with the situation. Giving room for that person to express his or her feelings or to discuss what they are going through would make their lives worthy to them.

 A blind person can live all by himself. There may be times that he or she would require a helping hand; there are tools for visually impaired people that can  aid their activities. There are devices for doing basic things around the house,  apps on smartphones and  computers are also helpful.

There is a mobile app called “Be My Eyes”. It helps in finding lost items, describing photographs, explaining colour, reading recipes, reading labels on household products and providing locations to mention a few. There is another one called “Lookout” by Google. It helps the user to identify items, analyze and relevant information to the user.

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