This January, celebrate Braille Literacy Month with Books Are Wings! January is a time to recognize Braille and the ways in which it connects blind and low vision people to literature and reading. Louis Braille, inventor of this system, was born in January.

Braille is not a language, but rather a system of creating an alphabet. Braille alphabets are then created for a given language. There are Braille alphabets for most every written language in the world. Braille allows the blind and low vision community to read and write in their native and learned languages.

In the following video, members of The Perkins School for the Blind share about the importance of Braille in an exceedingly technology driven world.

Books Are Wings is often able to offer books in a variety of languages, and would welcome any donations of books in Braille, to support communities and learning instutitions that serve blind and low vision individuals. At this time, we would like to direct you to specific resources for Braille and spoken word books:

“The National Library Service (NLS) is a free braille and talking book library service for people with temporary or permanent low vision, blindness, or a physical disability that prevents them from reading or holding the printed page.” https://www.loc.gov/nls/

“The National Federation of the Blind of Rhode Island is this state’s affiliate of the National Federation of the Blind. Our parent organization was formed in 1940 to try to improve the standard of living for the blind of this country. In 1970, this affiliate came into existence and began its work in bettering the lives for blind Rhode Islanders.” http://www.nfbri.org

Reading is a human right, and access to books is essential to the work of Books Are Wings.