In the history of the blind of Serbia, 14 July 1946 represents an important day. On that day, in the Home for the Blind in Zemun, first the Union of the Blind of Yugoslavia was set up, and thereafter also the Union of the Blind of Serbia.
Systematic protection of visually impaired persons was gradually developed, and an extensive and substantial body of rights and privileges for the blind was established, especially in the areas of child, social and health protection, pension and disability insurance, education, employment and work, culture, information, transport, customs and tax system, and other areas.
The Union of the Blind of Serbia operated within a federal organization in the period from 1946 to 2006, and after the termination of the federal organization of the blind, the Union became a member of the World Blind Union, the European Blind Union and the Balkan Consultative Committee, as well as the International Blind Sports Federation and the International Braille Chess Association.
The Union is the founder of the publishing house and library for the blind and the publisher of magazines for the blind and partially sighted, including the “Mozaik” (Mosaic) sound magazine, and the “Svitanja”, “Zabavni listici” and “Zena i dom” (Daybreaks, Entertainment Paper and Woman and Home) Braille magazines.
The library of the Union of the Blind of Serbia is named after Dr. Milan Budimir. Milan Budimir accomplished almost the entire opus of his scientific work as a blind person and thereby best proved that the blind can successfully perform tasks that, at first, seem unattainable to them.
Today, the “Dr. Milan Budimir” Library is the largest library of its type in the Balkans and one of the largest in Europe, and owing to the personal contribution of the President of the Republic of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, and the support of state institutions, it has been renovated and is fully functional and adjusted to its intended purpose, in conformity with the applicable modern standards.
Library holdings contain more than 10,000 titles, presented as audio books (over 50,000), Braille books (over 70,000), or standard script books (about 8,000), which make 90,000 bibliographic units. Within the library for the blind there is also a modern audiobook recording studio.
