ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The first-ever Braille Book corner named as “Gosha-i-Noor” was inaugurated at the National Library of Pakistan (NLP) in Islamabad on Thursday in a ceremony, marking the birthday celebrations week of Louis Braille-the inventor of Braille system for visually impaired persons.
Advisor to Prime Minister on National History and Literary Heritage (NH&LH) Irfan Siddiqui officially inaugurated the Braille Book Corner and interacted with the visually impaired students from Al-Maktoom Special Education Center for Visually Handicapped Children during book reading session.
While addressing the ceremony, Irfan Siddiqui said access to knowledge is the right of every human being and we will make all-out efforts to ensure provision of this right to all the people especially persons with disabilities to protect them from any sense of deprivation.
The advisor said any kind of disability cannot stop the courageous and committed people from moving forward in their lives and achieving their cherished goals.
Irfan Siddiqui said fingers are known to writing only but reading with the help of fingers is an additional ability of the visually impaired persons which we cannot find in the ordinary people.
The blind persons have been rendering their contributions in different fields of life however they must be provided maximum facilities and opportunities to acquire education and conduct research, he asserted.
For nearly 200 years, braille code has enabled people with vision impairments around the world to get education and this braille book corner is an effort to make variety of books accessible to the visually impaired students.
Irfan Siddiqui said the availability of braille books at NLP will facilitate blind persons through catering their educational needs.
The advisor said initially more than 60 braille books including copies of Holy Quran have been placed in this corner while the number of books will be increased gradually. He said computers with latest relevant software and other necessary material will be placed in the corner by the end of this financial year.
It is very unfortunate that NLP was not given any funds for upgrading its facilities since the last three decades, he lamented.
However in the current budget, an amount of Rs 115 million has been allocated for NLP which is being utilized for digitization of rare books and upgrading its facilities on modern lines, he added.
Irfan Siddiqui thanked Managing Director National Book Foundation (NBF) Dr. Inam ul Haq Javed for provision of braille books to the National Library.
