Blind SA prides itself on its rich history
Alrode’s Blind SA has proudly announced its milestone achievement of having preserved the heritage of Braille in the country.
With the intent to highlight and promote the importance of Braille in the life of a blind person, Alrode Blind SA has announced that Alberton will now have its first-ever Braille museum.
A few months from now, a Braille museum will be officially open to the public to experience a rich historic culture of Braille comprising mediums dating back centuries.
Braille Services of Blind SA was established in 1953 and is the only producer of braille in all eleven official languages of South Africa.
The purpose of Blind SA is to end the cycle of poverty among blind South Africans. It is through empowering them with knowledge and information through education, braille and development services.
They have since put together a historic development of different writing mediums and devices which date back to centuries in a museum to be named after the late Antonnette Botha.
Growth in the writing system
According to Philip Jordaan, manager of the Braille services division, South Africa is one of the oldest Braille-producing countries in the world which traces back to literature and photos.
“We were the first to produce African language Braille. We thought it would be wise if someone documented this. We thought let’s go wider than just the history of Blind SA and that’s when we said ‘why don’t we do a specific library for Braille’, although it’s not the only one in the world,” he said.
If Braille as a medium of communication is not preserved, he said in five to 10 years it will be gone, especially old Braille papers and the first Braille electronic equipment.
“We have what we could only put together from Blind SA’s collection and a few things from private collections, for instance, the Braille edition of Playboy. We also have the Braille Afrikaans Bible done by Pioneer Printers which was the only second Afrikaans Bible ever printed. We have books that date back to the early 20th century. We have catalogued most of them,” Jordaan said.
The Braille start-up museum will be housed in Alrode’s Blind SA head office.
Rich history
Jordaan, who carries years of experience in Braille services, said one needs to be proud of the past and what was accomplished.
“If you know where you come from, that gives you a reason to exist and a reason to go forward. The quality of Braille produced in South Africa is on par with the rest of the world and the quality is vigorously guarded by the South African Braille Authority. We are currently one of two certified Braille producers in the country for the production of school textbooks,” he said.
Set to be open to the public in November this year, the museum will be named The Antonnette Botha Braille Museum. She was internationally renowned and respected for having tirelessly worked her life in the Braille fraternity.
“Antonnette was a blind person herself, a teacher at a school for the blind and was very involved in the development and promotion of Braille in SA and abroad. We would like our local community to come and look at the rich history of Braille and how it has helped blind people to improve because of literacy,” said Jace Nair, CEO of Blind SA.
Nair reiterated that they want to use this museum to preserve the rich historic culture and development of the medium of Braille.
“We would like to extend an invitation to locals to visit the Blind SA house, in particular, the museum so that they could be exposed to some of the publications, memorabilia and devices that we have here,” he explained.
Lebohang Tekela of Blind SA said: “We still have kids that are being born blind and I think it’ll be highly beneficial for them to understand the history of Braille. This is also because we are also moving into the technology space and the fourth industrial revolution.”
He said Braille should be preserved as a form of communication for blind and partially sighted people.
