On International Braille Day, Thursday 3 January, the National Council for the Blind of Ireland (NCBI) re-affirms its commitment to the protection and advancement of Braille as the "best" reading and writing system for blind persons, developed by Louis Braille in 1825 and commemorated every year on this day.

Louis Braille, a cobbler's son, born in Paris in 1809, lost his sight in early childhood after an accident with one of his father's tools. The system he invented later received his name. Braille is based on six dots, like the design of a domino. It is a tactile form of recording information with these dots arranged in a group called a cell, like one half of a domino. The cells are arranged in lines on a page just like printed text. The system consists of sixty-three symbols made up of all the possible variations of these dots.

The NCBI holds the National Library of Braille reading materials. This library was started in Ireland in 1921 by the Irish Association for the Blind. This Organisation was subsumed into the work of the NCBI in 1987, then bequeathing a library of 3,000 titles in braille which has been added to every year since. The National collection now exceeds 15,000 titles. Only half of the titles are housed at the NCBI's Braille library at Whitworth Road, Drumcondra in Dublin. The other half are in storage awaiting the development of the new library facilities at Whitworth Road for which planning permission was obtained in the second half of last year.

Approximately 500 persons in Ireland read Braille and 150 of these use the NCBI Braille library on a regular basis. The majority of vision impaired people (3,500) use the NCBI tape library services in Dublin and Cork. NCBI also offers training in Braille reading to service users.

Donal Fitzpatrick, Lecturer in the School of Computer Applications, Dublin City University explains the significance of Braille to him. "When I read a book such as Lord of the Rings, I don't have to rely on a translator to interpret its meanings - I just let my own imagination run away with it. It's you and the book. You are the active partner in the reading process."

According to Des Kenny, Chief Executive of the National Council for the Blind of Ireland, "Braille is essential as a learning and studying medium for blind children and teenagers. The spoken word on tape does not have the capacity to teach spelling, punctuation and literary construction in the same way as offered by the braille system. Through NCBI's weekly Storytime Sessions in the summer, we encourage children to develop their Braille reading skills through storytelling and play workshops."

NCBI supports an equal access to information policy through which they assist commercial services to issue their information and billing to vision impaired customers. Companies availing of this assistance include, Esat, Eircell and Bord Gas. Many Government Departments issue their reports and reviews in Braille formats and the RTE Annual Report contains a summary in Braille of the Chairman's report. The NCBI looks forward to increased cooperation with these and other organisations as the usage of the medium of Braille continues to expand.