RNIB Connect Radio World Braille Day schedule

Toby Davey presents a special World Braille Weekend Connect celebrating 200 years of braille

• Features will include:
  Interview with Cara Murphy a pupil at Uddingston Grammer who is studying braille The radio station is following Cara’s braille journey throughout 2025 with another two catch ups planned to hear about her progress.
• Feature from Robert Kirkwood about Thomas Armitage and the history behind why reason braille was chosen to become the main tactile method of writing and the establishing of what is now known as RNIB.
• Interview with James Adams, Director of Scotland and Cllr Shaun Macaulay, Deputy Leader from North Ayrshire Council about the naming of a new street as Braille Gardens to celebrate Braille 200, raising awareness of both the history of braille and its continuing importance today.
• Interview from the British Library Braille 200 event with Anna Tylor explaining her sadness at not having the chance to learn braille when she was at school and her thoughts about the importance of braille.
• Interview with Sandra Gayer about her relationship with braille and about her work using braille music.
• Interview with Lord Blunkett about what braille means to him and how it has helped him throughout his life.

Ken plays a great selection of tracks with to celebrate 200 years of braille. The theme of the show will be 'Touch and Feel'.

Toby Davey, a braille user himself, chairs a discussion with four other enthusiastic users of braille talking about how they learnt braille, the benefits of learning and using braille, emerging new braille technology, quirky ways of using braille and what braille means to them on World Braille Day.

Joining Toby round the table are: Victoria Oruwari, Freelance Opera & Classical Singer, Kerrie Campbell, Educational Psychologist for South Lanarkshire Council, Zoe Dixon, Composer and Singer, and Stuart Lawler, Head of Digital Content and business Development Manager for Sight and Sound Technology.

A special show recorded live at the British Library celebrating Braille and featuring a panel including Lord David Blunkett, BBC Journalist Emma Tracey and Author Betsy Griffin.

For World Braille Day, we mark the day that Louis Braille was born with a special tour of the Louis Braille Museum for an insight into Louis Braille’s early life and how he came to invent his six-dot tactile reading and writing system.

The museum is situated in the actual home of the Braille family where Louis grew up in the village of Coupvray just under 30 miles from the centre of Paris.

Toby Davey with Farida Saïdi the Director of the Louis Braille Museum will take you on a guided tour of the house and museum, including the workshop where Louis had the accident which took his sight and a touch tour of some of Louis Braille’s actual belongings including his raised letter school books, a domino he played with and the Braille slate that he used to write on in braille.