World Braille Day: UN promotes disability-inclusive response to Covid-19
Life under lockdown has posed several issues especially for the visually impaired who rely on touch to access information, said the UN.
WORLD Braille Day is commemorated annually on 4 January by the United Nations (UN) and this year, the visually-impaired community has been given special recognition as they have faced the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown restrictions along with the seeing community.
According to the UN website, practices have been implemented by parts of the UN system to promote a disability-inclusive response to Covid-19 and disseminate information in Braille.
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“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,” read the site.
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According to the UN, World Braille Day has been celebrated since 2019, to raise awareness of the importance of Braille as a means of communication.
“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,” read the site.
Caxton Local Media Covid-19 reporting
Dear reader, As your local news provider, we have the duty of keeping you factually informed on Covid-19 developments. As you may have noticed, mis- and disinformation (also known as “fake news”) is circulating online. Caxton Local Media is determined to filter through the masses of information doing the rounds and to separate truth from untruth in order to keep you adequately informed. Local newsrooms follow a strict pre-publication fact-checking protocol. A national task team has been established to assist in bringing you credible news reports on Covid-19. Readers with any comments or queries may contact National Group Editor Irma Green (irma@caxton.co.za) or Legal Adviser Helene Eloff (helene@caxton.co.za). At the time of going to press, the contents of this feature mirrored South Africa’s lockdown regulations.
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