Each 4 January is celebrated as United Nations (UN) World Braille Day.

Braille is a system of raised dots that can be read with the fingers by people who are blind or who have low vision.

Braille is used by thousands of people all over the world in their native languages, and provides a means of literacy for all.

The Thammasat University Library collection includes several books about different aspects of blindness.

As the UN website notes,

Even under normal circumstances, persons with disabilities—one billion people worldwide— are less likely to access health care, education, employment and to participate in the community. They are more likely to live in poverty, experience higher rates of violence, neglect and abuse, and are among the most marginalized in any crisis-affected community.

For the visually impaired, life under lockdown has posed several issues in terms of independence and isolation, especially for people who rely on the use of touch to communicate their needs and access information. The pandemic has revealed how critically important it is to produce essential information in accessible formats, including in Braille and audible formats. Otherwise, many persons with disabilities could face a higher risk of contamination due to a lack of access of guidelines and precautions to protect and reduce the spreading of a pandemic. COVID-19 has also emphasized the need to intensify all activities related to digital accessibility to ensure digital inclusion of all people.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many good practices have been implemented by parts of the United Nations system to promote a disability-inclusive response to the COVID-19 and disseminate information in Braille.

In Malawi, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has produced 4,050 braille materials on awareness and prevention of COVID-19. In Ethiopia, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) disseminated audio information, and education and communication materials, to media professionals, and has developed Braille versions of the educational messages. UNICEF has produced guidance notes that are available in multiple languages and accessible formats (including Braille and ‘easy-to-read’). ‘COVID-19: Considerations for Children and Adults with Disabilities’ addresses such issues as access to information; water, sanitation and hygiene; health care; education; child protection; and mental health and psychosocial support, as well as considerations for an inclusive workplace.

World Braille Day, celebrated since 2019, is observed to raise awareness of the importance of Braille as a means of communication in the full realization of the human rights for blind and partially sighted people.

What is Braille?

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. Braille (named after its inventor in 19th century France, Louis Braille) is used by blind and partially sighted people to read the same books and periodicals as those printed in a visual font.

Braille is essential in the context of education, freedom of expression and opinion, as well as social inclusion, as reflected in article 2 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Thailand and Braille

As some TU students may know, Thai Braille (อักษรเบรลล์) was adapted by Genevieve Caulfield, who knew both English and Japanese Braille.

Genevieve Caulfield (1888–1972) was a blind American teacher, who founded a school for blind people in Thailand.

In 1938 she opened the Bangkok School for the Blind, partly financed by her own savings, after she learned that blind children were considered useless in Thailand. Resisting repatriation during World War II, she stayed in Bangkok and continued to work for her school. From 1956 to 1960, she organized a school for the blind and a rehabilitation center for boys in Saigon. There is a statue in her honor at the school in Bangkok which still exists today.

Her autobiography The Kingdom Within was published in 1960. TU students may borrow the book from the TU Library Interlibrary Loan (ILL) service.

As the Bangkok Post reported in 2012,

Drive down one of Bangkok’s busiest streets and peer behind the walls of a quiet gated compound, and you will find one of the gems of the Thai educational system, Bangkok School for the Blind. This residential school teaches 200 visually-impaired children the skills they need to attend mainstream secondary schools, and to become productive members of the community.

In the sunny, well-tended courtyard you will find a statue of a seated woman, her fingertips resting gently on the pages of a Braille manuscript on her lap. The caption at the base reads: “In Grateful Memory of Miss Genevieve Caulfield, a Pioneer in the Education of the Visually Handicapped of Thailand.”

Genevieve Caulfield, a blind American school teacher, founded the school in 1939. Her journey from the United States to the classrooms of Bangkok School for the Blind is a colourful tale of adventure, hardship, loss and, finally, triumph…

Genevieve learned Japanese, and settled into a content life in Tokyo. She was a lively and outgoing person, and had many friends. She met a number of Thai professionals who had moved to Tokyo for education or training. When she asked them about education for the blind in Thailand, she was met with the response, “there are no blind people in Thailand”.

Suspecting that handicapped persons were marginalised as many had been during her childhood in the United States, Genevieve formed a plan to build a school for the blind in Thailand, hoping to provide the same kind of education and training she had received at Perkins and Overbrook. Genevieve and Haruko made an exploratory trip to Bangkok in 1936. Genevieve was intrigued and delighted with the sensory overload of 1930s Bangkok _ the waft of the khlong, the scent of durian, the fragrance of the frangipani and the melodious sounds of the Thai language. She met with a number of government officials to request assistance and support for the school, but was gently rebuffed. Undeterred, she returned to the US to raise money and buy equipment for the school…

After raising the grand sum of $800, the two women sailed for Bangkok in 1938. The hold of the ship contained a wooden crate with their precious cargo: Braille slates and writing paper, elementary school books and two complete sets of embossed maps, all donated by Perkins School. In her luggage, Genevieve carried the metal plates of the Thai alphabet in Braille, which she had painstakingly translated herself…

Genevieve struggled at first to get the school off the ground. The Thai government, understandably preoccupied with other priorities, did not offer any assistance. Moreover, they insisted that the school be governed by a local board of directors. So Genevieve set out to cajole friends and contacts to join her board. She gave interviews to the press, and participated in various fairs, demonstrating her skills in reading and writing Braille.

Members of the Thai royal family took an interest in the school and donations started trickling in. Genevieve rented a small house, enlisted volunteers to begin copying books into Braille, and began teaching her first student, MC Puangmasphaka Diskul, or Than Ying Lek, a daughter of Prince Damrong…

She added a small dormitory to house the students, and took responsibility for their health and welfare. She provided support and acceptance, as well as good nutrition and medical care, and watched the children thrive. Genevieve also hired Thai teachers and trained them in the complexities of teaching blind children […]

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)