Living Braille – Public Discussion about Braille in Europe, Tuesday 7 November, 3:00 PM UK time

The European Blind Union (EBU) invites you to a public online discussion about reading, writing, production and other aspects of using braille.

It will take place Tuesday, 7th November 4:00 to 6:00 pm Central European Time on Zoom.

In this meeting, the EBU Braille Working Group will present its work and inform about recent projects. Share with us your experiences and problems in the use of braille concerning reading books, using braille displays, reading digital textes in braille, writing braille, labeling objects with braille and any other subject concerning braille.

Register to the event by sending an e-mail to Peter Brass, [email protected]

Communication language of the meeting: english with captions, no translation provided.

The online platform on braille of the EBU: www.livingbraille.eu

Free Braille Translators: Biblos, Sao Mai Braille and Send to Braille, Tuesday at 7:30 PM

Following our exploration of braille translators during National Braille Week, we are delighted to be joined by esteemed assistive technology pioneer Dean Martineau. Dean is a long term braille user and has spent many years developing his own personal braille shorthand system.

In this week’s Masterclass, Dean will introduce us to the Biblos braille translator and demonstrate how he uses it to translate text into his personalised shorthand system. He will also cover some more conventional uses of the program and compare it with other free translators on the market, including Send the Braille and Sao Mai Braille.

Register for the Masterclass here.

To join by phone, please use these details:

  • Phone number: 0131 460 1196
  • Meeting ID: 872 1971 6314
  • Passcode: 123456

Tek Talk of 10/30/23 at 8pm Eastern welcomes Matthew Horspool, General Manager at the Braillists Foundation, to discuss choosing a Braille Display

Matthew Horspool is the General Manager at the Braillists Foundation, which promotes braille and braille technology. He is also heavily involved in both the braille and assistive technology industries, and his day job is delivering screen reader and braille display/notetaker training.

Matthew will speak about choosing a Braille Display. Some of the factors that are important in choosing a Braille Display include: price, type of keyboard, built-in features etc. He will talk about the most common displays on the market and explain how they stack up against those factors.

The Pat Price Tek Talk Training Room Zoom meeting link follows. Be aware that all Accessible World Zoom meetings are set to automatically record and the Zoom Client on both your computer and your smart device has a message announcing the recording when you first enter a meeting using these clients. You must tab or swipe to the Got it button and execute it to acknowledge your awareness of the recording or you will be unable to unmute your device and speak in the meeting.

Join Choosing your Braille Display in the Pat Price Tek Talk Training Room

Special note: We are proud to announce that Tek Talk Programs can now be heard on ACB Media 1. Please visit the ACB Media Network Home page at https://www.acbmedia.org/ for upcoming events. Also we can now be listened to on your Echo Smart Device. Say “Echo, play T e k Talk podcast.”

Podcast feed: Those wishing to subscribe to past Tek Talk program archives can do so using their mobile device and podcast app of choice or using their computers and podcatcher program of choice. The link with which to subscribe follows: https://accessibleworld.org/feed/podcast/tektalk

The Accessible World, a division of Helping Hands For The Blind, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization, seeks to educate the general public, the disabled community and the professionals who serve them by providing highly relevant information about new products, services, and training opportunities designed specifically to eliminate geographic and access barriers that adversely affect them.

What’s new in JAWS, Zoomtext and Fusion 2024? Wednesday 1st November, 2pm

There’s a palpable air of excitement around the Sight and Sound Technology offices in Northampton, Glasgow and Dublin as we eagerly await the 2024 software releases of JAWS, Zoomtext and Fusion.

There are lots of features to explore in this latest release, including Face in View and Split Braille, to mention but a few.

On November 1st we’ll be joined by Vispero’s Roxana Fisher, Jan Bloem and Mohammed Laachir who will take us through this major release and answer all your questions.

Register Here

The New Braille Features in iOS 16 and 17, Tuesday at 7:30 PM

iOS 17 was released a few weeks ago, bosting a number of significant braille enhancements. In this Masterclass, we will be joined by Scott Davert to find out more.

Scott is well regarded in the blind community as an expert in braille on iOS. He regularly contributes braille-related content to the AppleVis website, and presented a series of three Masterclasses introducing us to braille on iOS in 2022.

There will be an extensive presentation followed by time for your questions. We may also cover some of the new braille features in iOS 16 which have not been covered in other sessions.

Register for The New Braille Features in iOS 16 and 17 here.

To join by phone, please use these details:

  • Phone number: 0131 460 1196
  • Meeting ID: 831 8198 7425
  • Passcode: 123456

From Print to Braille: A Masterclass a Day for National Braille Week

For many years now, Sight Scotland have championed National Braille Week, an opportunity to celebrate braille usage and raise awareness of the importance and value of braille. It runs in the second week of October, to coincide with World Sight Day.

This year at the Braillists, we are celebrating National Braille Week by running five Masterclasses, one each day, following the journey “From Print to Braille”:

  • Monday 9 October: What should our braille look like?
    We will be joined by a panel of braille transcribers to unpack the rules and conventions of braille layout in different parts of the world. Are headings always centred? What happens if a table is too wide for the braille page? Find out the answers to these questions and so much more!
  • Tuesday 10 October: The Key to Accessible Word Documents
    Discover how making a few small tweaks to your Microsoft Word documents will not only lead to better automated braille, but also speed up your word processing tasks! Using styles, inserting proper characters and ensuring tables are created effectively will all be covered.
  • Wednesday 11 October: Choosing the Right Braille Translator for the Job
    Microsoft Word knows about typography and layout, but it doesn’t know about braille contractions. That’s why we need a braille translation package. There are a number of packages on the market to suit a variety of budgets and complexities, and we’ll help you decide which one is the right one for you.
  • Thursday 12 October: A Deeper Dive Into Duxbury
    The Duxbury Braille Translator is used in braille production facilities all over the world. We will explore how templates can be used to produce braille according to virtually any international standard, and how styles and codes can be used to control the finer points of the braille output.
  • Friday 13 October: Reading the Finished Product
    The final stage of the transcription journey is for someone to read the braille! Usually, this is either done by embossing the document on paper or transferring it to a braille display. Which is most suitable? How easy is it to do? Join us to find out!

All of these Masterclasses take place from 7:30 PM-8:30 PM UK time. If you miss them live, they will be recorded and made available in the coming months via the Braillecast podcast.

Register for From Print to Braille here.

To join by phone, please use these details:

  • Phone number: 0131 460 1196
  • Meeting ID: 846 4911 7372
  • Passcode: 123456

2024 Round Table Conference – Call for Abstracts

On behalf of the Round Table Program Committee, with great pleasure we share with you the Call for Abstracts for the 2024 Round Table on Information Access for People with Print Disabilities (Round Table) Conference. Conference Theme Information Equity: Empowerment through Technology, Advocacy and Collaboration Date Sunday, 19 May – Tuesday, 21 May 2024 Venue Novotel Perth Langley, 221 Adelaide Terrace, Perth WA 6000

In Person Conference

The 2024 Conference will focus on the themes of advocacy, innovation and practice and provide opportunities for people with print disabilities, accessible format producers, libraries, publishers, education institutions, government bodies, technology developers and other key stakeholders to come together to collaborate, share knowledge and learn together.

We invite papers and workshops focusing on new developments in technology, research, advocacy initiatives, industry collaboration, legislation, policies, and/or service delivery models that promote equitable information access for people with print disabilities. The specific subthemes include Empowering Through Technology and Accessible Design; Inclusive Education and Lifelong Learning; Accessible Content Creation and Distribution; Advocacy, Law, and Creating Change; and Aging with Accessibility.

Information

Find more information at the following link: Call for Abstracts

Submit your abstract: Round Table Abstract Submission Form

Closing date for submission of abstracts: Thursday, 2 November 2023

We look forward to welcoming you to the 2024 in-person conference in Perth and invite you to submit an abstract addressing the conference theme.

Your assistance in circulating this information as widely as possible would be appreciated.

International Council on English Braille Eighth General Assembly Call for papers

Date: 27th September 2023

Introduction

The International Council on English Braille (ICEB) is holding its Eighth General Assembly from Saturday, 25 May 2024 to Thursday, 30 May 2024 at The Grand Millennium hotel in Auckland, New Zealand. We are delighted to invite friends of braille to submit papers (either full presentations or shorter posters) for delivery at the event.

The theme for the week will be “Two Centuries of Braille”. Between the ages of 13 and 16, Louis Braille worked on perfecting the basis of the braille system. Join us as we celebrate achievements in the world of braille and look forward to the exciting innovations and developments ahead. The following list gives some ideas for topics; however, it is not exhaustive. If you have something exciting you would like to share please get in touch:

  • Electronic reading of braille across different devices.
  • Research, education and teaching of braille to children.
  • Technological developments in braille production.
  • Research and Teaching of braille to blind adults, including issues related to computer-assisted environments.
  • Tactile graphics: research into readability and cost-effective production techniques.
  • Methods and issues surrounding braille writing.
  • UEB research and results of UEB implementation.
  • Challenges facing developing countries in the production and teaching of braille.
  • The future of braille code monitoring and maintenance.

For further inspiration please see the papers presented at the last General Assembly held online in 2020.

Process for submission

There will be two categories of papers, either a presentation or a poster session. If your paper is about a product, it will be categorised as a poster session.

Abstracts

Closing date for submission of Abstracts of up to 400 words is Saturday, November 18th, 2023. Late abstracts will only be considered if there are insufficient suitable abstracts received by the due date. Please provide the abstracts as Microsoft Word or text (.txt) attachments to [email protected].

Abstracts will be assessed and selected by the Papers Subcommittee of the ICEB, who will advise submitters of the acceptance (or non-acceptance) of their papers by Friday, December 8th, 2023.

What to include in your abstract: To assist the Committee in assessing your proposal, please ensure that you address the following points as part of your abstract of up to 400 words:

  • Title of paper;
  • Is the paper for inclusion as a presentation or poster session;
  • Name(s) of author(s), including organisational or corporate affiliations;
  • Contact details of author(s) (address, telephone and email);
  • Key objectives of paper – up to five key points;
  • Outline of paper;
  • Name and contact details of presenter of the paper (if different from above).

Papers (posters or presentations)

Completed papers are due by February 29th, 2024 as both a Microsoft Word file and a braille file (brf/dxb). The brf files should be 25 lines by 30 cells, suitable for embossing on A4 or 8.5 by 11-inch paper. Note – If you are unable to produce a braille file, we can give you guidelines on how to do this.

The papers should be sent to Natalie Martiniello [email protected].

Presentations should be a maximum of 3,500 words in length, exclusive of abstract, footnotes and appendices. Posters should be no longer than 1,350 words.

Papers may be written by two or more co-authors, or by an individual. Authors or co-authors need not be delegates to the General Assembly.

All accepted papers will be emailed to ICEB member countries by March 29th, 2024. This deadline is so that delegates may read and discuss the contents with others prior to their attending the General Assembly.

Delivery of Papers

Delivery of full presentations: As delegates are expected to have read the paper, each presenter will be asked to give a summary of their paper in up to 25 minutes, allowing time for questions and discussion to follow. A presenter is not required to be a paper’s author/co-author nor to be a delegate to the Assembly.

Delivery of poster sessions: Each presenter will have 10 minutes to explain and demonstrate their item. Delegates will then be able to explore the products further in an exhibition area. Poster speakers should ensure that their posters are accessible to blind attendees.

Please note that papers and posters are to be presented in person. Due to the full schedule, time limits will be maintained. All accepted papers will be published in the proceedings of the General Assembly and will be posted on the ICEB website after the Assembly. Presenters will be expected to register and pay for attendance at the General Assembly. If you have any further questions, please write to [email protected]

Summary of due dates:

November 18th, 2023: Abstracts due.

December 8th, 2023: Abstracts selected and submitters contacted via email

February 29th, 2024: Completed papers due.

March 29th, 2024: Accepted papers distributed to ICEB delegations via email

Begin Building an Early Tactile Foundation for Graphics Understanding with APH: Tuesday 24 October, 3:00-4:00 PM EST

Join this webinar to discover how instruction in concept and tactile skills contributes to the development of braille and graphics literacy skills for students with visual impairments.

This webinar is part 1 of Tactile Graphics Literacy for Students with Visual Impairments: 4 Part Series.

Register Here for Building an Early Tactile Foundation for Graphics Understanding