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November 13 is marked as the International Day of the Visually Impaired People.

The International Day of the Visually Impaired People was established by the decision of the World Health Organization in order to attract attention to the problems of visual impairment and low vision.

The celebration of the day on this date is related to the birthday of the famous French philanthropist Valentin Hauy, the author of the relief alphabet for the blind, the founder of the first educational institutions for the visually impaired people.

In 1784, for the first time in the world, he opened the "workshop of the working blind" for blind children in his own home without the help of the government and charitable societies. For the first time, orphaned children were admitted to that school.

It was possible to teach blind children to read and print books for them with the help of a special raised font called "uncial" that he developed. Visually impaired children have also acquired the ability to type text with those fonts. Besides, Valentin Hauy built matrices for the production of devices, visual textbooks, geographic maps and globes for the visually impaired people. The idea of creating books for the visually impaired people also belongs to him.

Since 2002, Visually Impaired People Society has been operating in  Azerbaijan. On June 1, 1981, on the initiative of the society, the "Central Republican Library for the Blind" started operating under the authority of that society. The task of the library is to provide the visually impaired people of I and II groups with the library and information services.

On the occasion of the International Day of the Visually Impaired People, a virtual exhibition called "November 13 is the International Day of the Visually Impaired People" was prepared by the staff of the National Library of Azerbaijan named after M.F. Akhundzade.

At the virtual exhibition, photographs, books on the subject and articles published in periodicals are displayed.

Those who want to get acquainted with the virtual exhibition can access the link http://anl.az/el/vsb/Beynelxalq_Gozden_Eliller_Gunu_13_noyabr/index.htm