Senate Resolution No. 151 BY: Senator PARKER MEMORIALIZING Governor Kathy Hochul to proclaim January 4, 2023, as Braille Day in the State of New York WHEREAS, It is the custom of this Legislative Body to recognize and celebrate a day that is set aside to promote and raise public awareness and attention concerning blindness and highlight the contributions of those who have this disability; and WHEREAS, This Legislative Body hereby memorializes Governor Kathy Hochul to proclaim January 4, 2023, as Braille Day in the State of New York, in conjunction with the observance of World Braille Day; and WHEREAS, World Braille Day is celebrated annually on January 4th to honor the birth of Braille's inventor, Louis Braille; his gift to the world has brightened the lives of millions of people around the globe who are blind or visually impaired, and acknowledges that those with visual impairments deserve the same standard of human rights as everyone else; and WHEREAS, Louis Braille was a Frenchman who lost his eyesight as a child when he accidentally stabbed himself in the eye with his father's awl; from the age of 10, he spent time at the Royal Institute for Blind Youth in France, where he formulated and perfected the system of raised dots which eventually became known as Braille; and WHEREAS, This extraordinary man developed a code based on cells with six dots, making it possible for a fingertip to feel the entire cell unit with one touch and moving quickly from one cell to the next; and WHEREAS, Braille slowly came to be accepted throughout the world as the main form of written information for blind people; unfortunately, Louis did not have the opportunity to see how useful his invention had become; he passed away in 1952, just two years before the Royal Institute began teaching Braille; and WHEREAS, Louis Braille truly opened a world of accessibility to the blind and visually impaired and was subsequently recognized by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA); in November of 2018, his birthday, January 4th, was declared World Braille Day and the first-ever World Braille Day was commemorated the following year as an international holiday; and WHEREAS, It is highly appropriate to publicize the needs, abilities and potential of our fellow citizens who are blind or visually impaired, and to recognize Louis Braille as a guiding example of courage, hope, determination and achievement for other individuals who are blind; and WHEREAS, World Braille Day is an opportunity to urge and encourage the residents of New York to support programs which have the objective to empower and educate people from the blind and visually impaired community of New York; now, therefore, be it RESOLVED, That this Legislative Body pause in its deliberations to memorialize Governor Kathy Hochul to proclaim January 4, 2023, as Braille Day in the State of New York; and be it further RESOLVED, That a copy of this Resolution, suitably engrossed, be transmitted to The Honorable Kathy Hochul, Governor of the State of New York.