Using of the Braille alphabet in the Republic of Macedonia

Abstract

The author of the alphabet for the blind is Louis Braille, who invented six dot cells in 1825, and in 1850 it is officially recognized in Europe as a single letter for people with severe visual impairment. One of the most important goals in educating these people is to know and to actively use the Braille alphabet. But, according to the American Federation for the Blind (2009) there are only 10% of school-age children with severe visual impairment who use Braille alphabet as the primary letter. This is much lower than in 1960 when 50% of students were using Braille. The goals of the paper are to determine the number of blind persons who know and use Braille and accessibility of Braille for the blind persons in the Republic of Macedonia. The research was conducted by using the questionnaire which included questions open, closed, and mixed type. Using the answers we get pictures of the current situation, i.e. the representation and use of Braille writing by the blind in the country. According to the complete analysis and processing of the obtained results we conclude that the number of blind persons who use Braille is very small. Namely, from 4171 blind persons, members of 18 Unions of blind, only 491 (11.8%) know Braille or 222 (5.3%) from all of the members actively use this letter as a medium of written communication.