Braille advocate and Dunedin resident Julie Woods, also known as "That Blind Woman", lost her sight in her 30s, but did not let the setback stop her for long.
Yesterday was World Braille Day, which got its date from the birthday of Louis Braille, who invented the Braille writing system as a young man over 200 years ago.
Ms Woods celebrated the day by working towards the goal she set in 2017: writing 1 million names in braille.
Ms Woods was in Unity Park yesterday with the goal to write as many names as possible in Braille.
"One million names in Braille is all about connecting the world with dots, so Unity Park seems like an appropriate place to do this."
In November 2023 the team wrote their 30,000th name.
Names in Braille staff at the Unesco Cities of Literature around the world assisted with the project.
Those Cities of Literature were Angouleme in France, Nanjing in China, Milan in Italy, Montevideo in Uruguay, and Lviv and Odesa in Ukraine.
The extra names from around the world helped the number reach 31,350.
Maya Dimerli, from Odesa, said in Ukraine, due to Russia having bombed their energy infrastructure, they had a very long period without electricity.
"People who can’t see but know Braille were able to read in absolute darkness as they didn’t even have to light a candle to read.
"Braille itself is the light in the darkness."
Dunedin Unesco City of Literature joined forces with Ms Woods and sent both print and Braille versions of the book WONDERlust, written by Ms Woods, which have been sent to the countries who are featured in it.
The book was illustrated by Ms Woods’ husband, Ron Esplin, and describes visiting the Seven Wonders of the World as a blind person as Ms Woods did.
