International Day of the Blind (13/11)

On November 13, 1745, Valentin Haüy was born in France, a famous teacher who founded several schools and enterprises for the blind in Paris and St. Petersburg. By decision of the World Health Organization (WHO), it was this date that became the basis for the establishment of the International Day of the Blind, the main goal of which is to attract the attention of the general public to those who have forever lost their sight and find themselves in difficult life situations.

Until the 18th century, the world did not know educational institutions for the blind. Valentin Gayuy first demonstrated his method of teaching the blind through a font he invented. In 1784, in Paris, without the support of the government and charitable societies, with his own personal funds in his own home, he opened the world's first school for blind children called the «Workshop for the Blind.». Valentin Gayuy's first student was the boy Francois de Lezuer, picked up on the church porch. Then 11 more of his street peers entered the school.

Valentin Gayuy put the education and upbringing of blind children on a scientific basis. He developed the relief-linear font «uncial». This font is named from the Latin word meaning « equal in length to one ounce». These were large, even letters, squeezed out in relief on thick paper. The main advantage of «uncial» was that with this font it was possible to teach blind children to read and print books for the blind.

The font was movable, and this helped blind children type the desired text. In addition, Valentin Gayuy designed instruments for the blind and matrices for the production of relief visual aids, geographical maps and globes. He also taught this craft to his students. The idea of creating books for the blind also belongs to Valentin Gayuy.

Despite enormous financial difficulties, Valentin Gayuy built a printing house at the school and printed several books in it in relief and linear font — «uncial». These were the first books for the blind. Based on the books of Valentin Gayuy, the blind were trained until Louis Braille's invention of the embossed six-dot font (in 1829, the Frenchman Louis Braille —, a graduate of the Paris National Institute for Blind Children, developed a universal system of embossed dot font, which became widespread in all countries of the world).

In 1803, Valentin Gayuy received an offer from the Russian Emperor Alexander I to open an educational institution for the blind in St. Petersburg. In 1807, Alexander I approved the Charter, staff and budget of the St. Petersburg Institute of Blind Workers. This date is considered to be the beginning of the activities of the first educational institution for blind children in Russia.

Currently, the All-Russian Society of the Blind (VOS), founded in 1925 and uniting 76 regional organizations, protects the rights and interests and supports the visually impaired in Russia. Internet radio VOS covers the most important events for blind people in the cultural and social spheres of the country. The official website of the VOS also published a list of enterprises and organizations that hire visually impaired and blind Russians to work. The state creates an accessible, barrier-free environment for such people: it adapts public places to their needs, installs signs with Braille, equips special sports and children's playgrounds, and recreation areas. In addition, conditions are being created for obtaining accessible and high-quality education: many educational institutions in the country provide visually impaired people with educational opportunities, and there are specialized educational institutions.

According to WHO, today in the world — approximately 2.2 billion people live with some form of visual impairment (more than 1 billion of them are a consequence of lack of prevention or treatment), of which 36 million people are blind. With population growth and aging, there will be an increasing risk that more people will develop visual impairments.

Based on the books of Valentin Gayuy, the blind were trained until Louis Braille invented the embossed hexadotomy font (Photo: Africa Studio, licensed by Shutterstock.com)

In many countries around the world, on the International Day of the Blind, events are held to draw public attention to people who have lost their sight and are visually impaired, as well as to create conditions for the full participation of these people in society, expanding their opportunities for obtaining knowledge and information through information and communication means, increasing their employment, and generally improving the lifestyle of these people.

By the way, among the blind there are many famous people — ancient Greek poet Homer, Saint Matrona of Moscow, creator of relief dot font Louis Braille, English mathematician Nicholas Saunderson, American musician and composer Stevie Wonder, Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli and Russian singer Diana Gurtskaya. Not from birth were blind: the Italian scientist and philosopher Galileo Galilei, the American publisher and journalist Joseph Pulitzer, the Russian mathematician Nikolai Lobachevsky.

Let us remind you that there are still days in the international calendar that urge society not to forget about people who need the simplest support, — is International Day of the Deaf, celebrated on the last Sunday of September, International White Cane Day (October 15), International Day of Persons with Disabilities (December 3).



Postcard «November 13 — International Day of the Blind»

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