International Day of the Blind

International Day of the BlindOn this day, events are held in Azerbaijan to draw public attention to people who have lost their sight.

For example, the Baku City Hall decided to equip all traffic lights with sound signals for visually impaired pedestrians. The first ones were installed near the enterprises where they work. Specialists chose the sound taking into account the interests of both disabled people and residents of the residential quarter. Now the volume of the signal can vary depending on the time of day. The loudest signal sounds in the daytime, and from 9 p.m. to 8 a.m. it is completely off.

On December 9, 2007, an agreement was signed between the United Nations Development Programme and the Heydar Aliyev Foundation. A cooperation agreement was signed between the two structures to provide access to information and communication technologies for people with visual impairment and visual impairment, and a project document.

320,000 disabled people live in Azerbaijan. Of these, 40,000 are blind and visually impaired. The project will contribute to the participation of these people in the life of society, expanding their opportunities to obtain knowledge and information through information and communication tools, increasing their employment, and generally improving the lifestyle of these people.

There are 124 million blind people in the world. The World Health Organization estimates that their number could double by 2020.