Braille expert who proposed to his wife using a braille scrabble board says "it’s still the key to success for many blind and partially sighted people"
Image of the braille 200 logo.
A braille expert who proposed to his wife using a braille scrabble board says the six-dot tactile reading system is still a major key to success for blind and partially sighted people.
Marking World Braille Day, the annual celebration of Louis Braille’s birthday, Dave Williams, Royal National Institute of Blind People’s (RNIB) Inclusive Design Ambassador, says more funding is needed for braille education and more wide-spread braille-use would enable many more blind and partially sighted people to live the life they want to lead.
“On Valentine's Day 2011, I suggested playing a game, as my wife’s always in the mood for Scrabble. She read the board with my words "Will you marry me?" and started looking for the right letters. Which is when I remembered that in a standard set of Scrabble, there are only two letter Ys and I had used both. So eventually she put Blank, E, S onto the board. I said "I'll take that, that sounds like a yes to me!"”
World Braille Day
4 January is World Braille Day, held annually to commemorate the birthday of braille inventor Louis Braille.
2024/25 marks 200 years since the schoolboy developed the six-dot tactile reading system which is known as braille. Braille 200 is a year of celebrations held across the UK and running into 2025, it recognises the bicentenary of the braille code. It aims to highlight braille's importance in helping blind and partially sighted people to live their everyday lives, accessing education and employment opportunities.
RNIB highlights the advantages of new braille technology, such as digital displays, and is ensuring braille will help thousands more people with sight loss in the future.
“We must all celebrate braille because of what it represents in terms of blind people being able to read for ourselves rather than be read to. Braille is literacy, leading to greater education outcomes, employment prospects and personal independence. For me personally, braille means I can instantly identify medication, play board games with my family and friends and I was able to read bedtime stories with my son when he was younger. Braille is also helpful in the built environment for reading number buttons in lifts, on hotel room doors and, increasingly, reading tactile maps and signs at train stations."
Content creator Seren Jaye has more than 740,000 followers on TikTok and around 27,000 on Instagram, where she campaigns to challenge misconceptions around sight loss. Seren, who lost her sight when she was 17, has been learning braille which she uses to help her in the studio on her media journalism course at university. She is also a Rainbows leader (Girlguiding for younger children) and uses braille to interact with the young girl guides.
“I’m quite an independent person and when I lost my sight at 17, I wanted to get back into reading because I always had my head in a book, and it was something I really missed. Being a blind person often feels like you are waiting on other people’s time to give you a lift or assist you but being able to read at your own pace and access information, helps me out so much and means I can be more in control of my life. I work with girl guide kids aged four to seven and braille means I can read books to them, and they can look at the pictures and that’s become my best way of practicing learning braille.”
Seren has just bought a digital braille display which helps her read braille more effectively.
Eleven-year-old Betsy Griffin lost her eyesight after being treated for a brain tumour. As she recovered from surgery, she began to discover braille was one of the tools she could use to continue her huge love of reading and writing. Her first book Out of The Woods was published in 2022 by HQ. In her book, Betsy created a cast of friendly animal characters who explain how to live positively in the face of adversity. It was partly based on her popular YouTube videos which explore Betsy’s unique tips for living well with sight loss.
“Braille has been incredibly valuable to me, allowing me to read and write independently. I find braille labels very helpful, especially when they identify essential items like medicine boxes or bins in public restrooms. Braille has also been valuable in my education, as it allows me to read assignments from my school and tutor, enabling me to respond with the answers or feedback I need to provide. ”
What we’re campaigning for
RNIB is calling on the new Government to ensure budgets for local authority vision impairment services are protected and increased so that all children with vision impairment can access the specialist support they need, including braille education.
RNIB is calling on the NHS and other organisations to commit to making correspondence available in braille to blind and partially sighted people.
The process to accessing alternative formats of medication packaging and patient information leaflets should be made easier, including in braille, in line with the Human Medicines Regulations (2012), the Equality Act (2010) and the Disability Discrimination Act (1995).
Braille on medication packaging contains the medication name, this regulation should be expanded to include medication expiry date, dosage and storage instructions, which would be useful to braille users who take medication. In addition, pharmacists should ensure that they do not cover braille on medication packaging with pharmacy labels, as this happens regularly and makes the inclusion of braille obsolete.
How to get involved in Braille 200
We’d like people to support braille readers. You can do this in many ways, including:
- Add alt text and image descriptions to your social media posts – see RNIB’s guidance on how to make your social media accessible, which means that braillists can read the image description on their phone via their braille device. How to make your social media accessible | RNIB
- We’re calling on everyone to learn how to read/write their name in braille or even learn the braille alphabet. Go to RNIB’s social channels and ask for your name represented in braille or order a braille alphabet card, showing the embossed braille alphabet, punctuation marks and numbers, together with the print translation. To do so, please contact our Helpline on 0303 123 9999 and quote product code: PR10223.
Be a braille myth-buster: anyone can learn braille at any age, it isn’t only used by people who have total sight loss and is still relevant today even with audio and screen reader technologies.
- RNIB is urging braille teachers and pupils to make use of RNIB’s extensive bank of braille resources, including courses, learning materials and braille products. These can be found here.
- We’re calling on UK organisations, businesses and services to review and improve their provision of braille in this anniversary year.
Other ways to get involved
Celebrate 200 years of braille and join the conversation on social media by using the #Braille200 hashtag.
You can also follow RNIB on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube for brilliant braille content and lots more.
Attend a Braille and Beyond Library tour event.
You can find full details of events happening at UK libraries throughout 2024/25 here.
Tell us about your experience with braille.
We’d love to hear about your personal experiences with braille, whether you’re just starting out or have been a braille user for years. To share your experiences with us, please email [email protected].
We can also help you connect with your local braille community, both online and in person. Please click here to find out more.
Facts and Figures
- Nearly a quarter of local authority vision impairment services for education in England saw their budgets frozen, or cut, between 2022 and 2023.
- But according to RNIB data, since 2022, there has been an 18 per cent increase in the number of children and young people using braille or, in the case of very young children, expected to use braille, to access learning UK wide. These children and young people require the highest levels of support.
- We are campaigning for education systems across the UK where all children and young people with vision impairment have timely access to high quality specialist support, including the development of braille literacy to access all core curriculum areas. Key to this is adequate resources for local authority vision impairment services and endorsement for the Curriculum Framework for Children and Young people with Vision Impairment (CFVI).
Who was Louis Braille?
Louis Braille was a teenager in the 1820s when he developed the system of raised dots which would eventually be named after him as braille. Born in 1809 in a small town 20 miles east of Paris, Louis was blinded in one eye at the age of three after an accident with a tool in his father’s harness-making workshop. This led to an infection which also caused him to lose the sight in his other eye. Louis excelled in his education and won a scholarship at France’s Royal Institute for Blind Youth. It was here that he began to develop his system for tactile literacy. He spent much of the rest of his life developing and refining his system, but it was only after his death that it would be recognised and widely used.
The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB)’s connection to braille
Not everyone is aware that the organisation that would become RNIB – The British and Foreign Society for Improving the Embossed Literature of the Blind - was founded in 1868 by Thomas Rhodes Armitage with the single aim of finding a workable tactile system of reading for blind and partially sighted people. It soon became the main organisation dedicated to the production and distribution of braille in the United Kingdom.
Armitage had trained as a physician before his eyesight began to deteriorate and he became partially sighted. In the 1870s, the organisation adopted braille as the most viable tactile literacy medium. Our first braille book was published in 1871 and in the same year we launched the first edition of our magazine ‘Progress’.
In 1914 after moving to a larger premises at Great Portland Street in central London the organisation was renamed the National Institute for the Blind and eventually in 2002 became the Royal National Institute of Blind People.
Today, based at our central London office The Grimaldi Building, RNIB is widely respected for its contribution to braille product development and policy, in the UK and around the world.
Two hundred years after the braille code was invented, braille innovation is accelerating with multiline refreshable braille displays, online delivery of braille content and the evolution of the braille code itself. We can be confident braille will be relevant for another two hundred years and beyond.
How we are celebrating Braille 200
From September 2024, RNIB is hosting a series of special events, initiatives and press opportunities to spread the word about Braille 200, including:
- A flagship launch event at the British Library in central London on 26 November 2024 with a select panel of braille celebrities, hundreds of invited guests and an opportunity to get hands on with braille heritage and technology.
- A tour of libraries across all four UK nations supporting local organisations to build braille awareness and advocacy through a range of braille activities.
- Resources for schools/youth groups to encourage an appreciation of braille as a key element of inclusive education.
- A dedicated RNIB web page to signpost people towards braille resources.
- Braille challenges for sighted people and people with sight loss.
- Promoting RNIB’s extensive braille library and its braille-on-demand service.
- Braillists and celebrity braillists celebrating the positive impact of braille in their lives.
Why braille is important
Braille remains crucial because it enables blind and partially sighted people to read independently by touch, freeing ears and eyes to access the people and environment around them. Braille accurately represents written language for accessing personal and professional documents, whatever the subject. It is used for studying educational and technical materials, including languages, sciences, maths and music. When braille is combined with digital technologies such as screen readers built into modern laptops, tablets and smartphones and the latest multi-line braille readers, it supports spelling, punctuation and formatting nuances not easily conveyed with audio alone. Braille can also be integral for navigating public spaces and everyday tasks; it appears on signs, lifts and product packaging, including all medication.
Braille means blind parents can read bedtime stories with children, deliver a speech at a wedding, and who would want to have a birthday or Christmas card or medical test results read to them? For many blind people, braille is reading for yourself rather than being read to by a person or a machine. Some blind people feel strongly that we need braille as much as sighted people need print.
How RNIB supports braille
RNIB invests millions of pounds in the production of braille books every year. We offer more than 11,000 braille titles free of charge to readers from our library. Our shop contains everything from braille displays and labellers to scrabble boards and football fixtures and we work closely in partnership with manufacturers to develop new braille products and define braille standards in the UK.
RNIB provides braille resources for both adults and young people. We also work in partnership with specialist teachers of children with vision impairment to ensure access to braille learning resources.
Our valued transcription service helps people and organisations turn their print words into braille on a commercial basis, furthering RNIB’s other braille services.
RNIB collaborates with braille standards organisations at home and abroad to ensure quality and consistency in braille transcription and translation tools.
UK legislation, including the Equality Act 2010, mandates reasonable adjustments for people with disabilities, which includes providing information in accessible formats like braille.
Investing in braille products, services, and expertise aligns with RNIB's purpose to build the perfect country with blind and partially sighted people. By leveraging our unique position and expanding our offerings, we can meet the growing demand for accessible solutions, drive revenue growth, and make a lasting social impact.
