THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The emergence of assistive technological applications has helped visually challenged people manage day-to-day life without much dependence on Braille, a tactile writing system to read and write. However, experts emphasise the importance of Braille in making the visually challenged autonomous two centuries after its invention. On World Braille Day they want the age-old method to remain the basis of learning.
Habeeb C, president of the Kerala Federation of the Blind (KFB), said Braille is relevant even in the age of artificial intelligence.
“Braille was an important invention that helped both visually challenged and others.It also helped people understand the knowledge of the visually challenged,” he said. KFB started the first Braille printing press in 1986. They have been printing textbooks for visually challenged Braille till High School. According to Habeeb, KFB will soon start printing textbooks in higher secondary and college, soon.
K R Reghunathan Nair, former principal of a Government School for the Visually Impaired, explained how Braille formed the foundation of learning. “With the advancement of technology, the use of Braille has reduced in day-to-day life. However, Braille is important for learning language. It is through Braille that a visually challenged person learns the spellings and starts writing,” he said. He also said that the Taylor Method using Braille is equally important in learning basic maths.
Braille is a tactile representation of alphabetic and numerical symbols using six dots to represent each letter and number, and even musical, mathematical and scientific symbols.