News

Information from Vispero:

Join Bill Kilroy, Ron Miller, and Shelly Klure for a webinar celebrating braille literacy month with the Focus Braille Displays. Ron Miller will demonstrate Split Braille, how to connect the braille display to a variety of devices and discuss the importance of braille literacy. Don’t miss out on this educational hour as we demonstrate live and answer your questions in real-time.

We will provide an overview of the Focus Braille Displays and show how you or your clients can benefit from the lightweight and compact design. We will demonstrate how to:

• Connect up to five devices via Bluetooth and one with USB-C cable
• Use the Split Braille feature
• Improve braille literacy with a refreshable braille display
• And much more!

ACVREP credits will be available for those who attend the live webinar.

Register for the “Celebrate Braille Literacy with Focus” webinar

Braille isn’t just for books! It can also be found on household products and signs; in restaurants, museums and theatres; and your personal and confidential documents can also be sent to you in braille. So how do you find it? Who do you ask? And if you think the braille you’ve found could be improved, how do you make your case without upsetting people?

In this special event for World Braille Day, we will be joined by a panel of braille advocates to explore these questions and more. We will examine when companies are legally required to provide braille, discuss how to encourage the provision of braille and consider how best to respond when braille is not available.

Register here.

To join by phone, please use these details:

• Phone number: 0131 460 1196
• Meeting ID: 894 8970 5649
• Passcode: 123456

At Sight and Sound Technology, we’re passionate about Braille, the method of reading, developed by Louis Braille, almost 200 years ago.

In our work we see every day how Braille continues to revolutionise access to education, employment and a better quality of life for those who use it. We are delighted therefore to announce details of Braille and Breakfast, a very special online webinar, taking place at 09:30 am on Thursday January 4th.

Join Sight and Sound Technology’s Stuart Lawler, as he hosts a panel of Braille enthusiasts who will share their passion for the code that has changed so many lives.

If you love braille, and have your own Braille stories or comments to share, then please come along and join us for this very special celebration.

Please register here to attend this session.

UKAAF will be hosting a webinar celebrating World Braille Day: Towards two centuries of braille. Taking place between 13:00 and 14:00, we hope you will be able to attend.

At the time of writing this note, details are not yet finalised. However, it is hoped to have three speakers, and of course time for any questions.

Click here to register

Come One, Come All and join the Braille Revival League for a seven-hour birthday party celebration for Louis Braille which we are calling Braille Matters!! There will be lots of presentations, lots of prizes, lots of opportunities for everyone to participate and no reason for you not to be there.

Braille is the means of communication that enables people who are blind to be competitive in the world of work, to be creative, to play games, to mark and label, and so much more!

Our organization is concerned that there is not enough excitement about braille and we want to change that! We want to get everyone excited about what braille can do and look ahead to what the Braille Revival League can do to make braille more and more valued and relevant.

Millions of blind people around the world believe that braille matters, and so do we. The Braille Revival League and its six state affiliates invite you to join us as we celebrate the genius of Louis Braille and learn why blind users and organizations like the Braille Authority of North America, the National Library Service, Clovernook Printinghouse for the Blind, the National Braille Press, Horizons for the Blind, and the Braillists Foundation in the United Kingdom say that braille matters now more than ever.

We will talk about the work we are going to do trying to get braille labels on products. We will talk about the support we offer to the National Library Service as they launch braille e-readers and braille on demand. we will talk with agencies across the country who teach braille or produce it. We will explore approaches that are making braille exciting to children in school. We will hear from our state affiliates about what is going on in states where there are chapters of the Braille Revival League.

Our hope is that this event, occurring on the birthday of Louis Braille, will become an annual happening. We will be able each year to use this day to celebrate what we have done over the preceding year to make braille better known and more available.

We will be broadcasting the daylong event on Zoom, ACB Community, in Clubhouse, and on ACB Media. Come and help us make this day a huge success!!

Click here to join at 6:00 PM on 4 January, no registration required

Full Agenda

All times are shown in Eastern Standard Time (GMT−05:00).

• 1:00 PM: Welcome to Our Celebration: Denise Colley, Braille Revival League President
• 1:05 PM: Congratulatory Remarks: Deb Cook Lewis, American Council of the Blind (ACB) President
• 1:10 PM: What’s Current With Braille and What Does the Future Hold: Jen Goulden, Chair, Braille Authority of North America (BANA)
• 1:25 PM: News From the Jenny Beck (Pennsylvania) BRL Chapter: Tony McCloskey, President, Jenny Beck Chapter
• 1:35 PM: The Braillists Foundation; Who we Are and News From The UK: Matthew Horspool, General Manager, The Braillists Foundation; Frank Welte, BRL Board Member and President, BRL of California
• 1:55 PM: Acknowledgement of Braille Revival League Life Members and Announcement of the 3rd Place Winner of our Why Braille Matters Contest: Jane Carona, BRL Treasurer and Membership Committee Chair
• 2:10 PM: Vacaville Volunteers Blind Project, Teaching incarcerated inmates the trade of Braille Transcription and Brailler Repair: Claudia Romero, Program Director, Volunteers of Vacaville Blind Project, California Medical Facility, Vacaville, California
• 2:35 PM: News From Our West Coast BRL Affiliate: Frank Welte, President, Braille Revival League of California
• 2:45 PM: Clovernook Braille Printing House, The past, the present, and looking to the future: Samuel Foulkes, Director of Braille Production and Accessible Innovation, Clovernook Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired
• 3:10 PM: National Braille Press, How Various Programs Demonstrate the importance of Braille: Brian MacDonald, President, National Braille Press
• 3:35 PM: How the Sun Shines On Our BRL Florida Affiliate: Elizabeth Bowden, President, Braille Revival League of Florida
• 3:45 PM: The Variety of Braille Formats at NLS: Tamara Rorie, Head of the Patron Engagement Section, National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled (NLS)
• 4:10 PM: Announcement of the 2nd Place Winner of our Why Braille Matters Contest: Jane Carona, BRL Treasurer and Membership Committee Chair
• 4:15 PM: The Importance of Braille in the Great State of Illinois: Albert Anderson, President, Braille Revival League of Illinois
• 4:25 PM: Horizons for the Blind, A Variety of Braille Services: Katrina Teas, Braille Production-Proofer, Horizons for the Blind
• 4:50 PM: The Braille Challenge, Inspiring our young people using Braille: Rachel Antoine, Director, National Programs and Youth Services, The Braille Institute, Los Angeles, California
• 5:15 PM: Grade 3 Braille, Advanced Braille Knowledge: Nancy Shipman, Facilitator of the Grade Three Braille Revisited Weekly ACB Community Call
• 5:20 PM: Digital and Electronic Braille: Nicki Keck, Facilitator of the Learning Braille Digitally Bi-Weekly ACB Community Call
• 5:30 PM: Dream Vision Group, Braille Notetakers, Embossers, etc.: Mike Tindell, Assistive Technology Specialist, Dream Vision Group
• 5:55 PM: Braille Together, Let’s have fun Using Braille: Dorlyn Catron, Facilitator of The Braille Room ACB Community call. A braillewriter and piece of braille paper are required for this session
• 6:15 PM: What’s Exciting in the Lonestar Affiliate: Neva Fairchild, President, Braille Revival League of Texas
• 6:25 PM BRL: Who We Are and What We are Doing, along with the Announcement of the 1st Place Winner of our Why Braille Matters Contest: Denise Colley, BRL President; Ralph Smitherman, BRL Secretary and Public Relations Chair; Jane Carona, BRL Treasurer and Membership Committee Chair; Paul Edwards, Immediate Past President and Publications Committee Chair; Patty Slaby, Board Member and Outreach Committee Chair
• 6:50 PM: Some Final Remarks: Dan Spoone, American Council of the Blind Interim Executive Director
• 6:55 PM: Closing Remarks: Denise Colley, Braille Revival League President
• 7:00 PM: Braille Revival League of New York, Wrap-Up, award, and surprises: Audrey Shading, President Braille Revival League of New York and members of the New York Affiliate

Following the untimely death of Dr Mike Townsend on 28 November, we can now confirm that there will be a service of Thanksgiving for Mike’s life at Fleckney Baptist Church, High Street, Fleckney, LE8 8AJ on Monday 8 January at 2:30pm followed by refreshments. It will be live streamed and also available to view afterwards on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbC3eRqFEnI

If you are planning to attend, please email [email protected] for the purposes of catering.

All are welcome.

We are very pleased to let you know that the registrations are now open for the 8th General Assembly of the International Council on English Braille. This will be held in Auckland, New Zealand, from Saturday 25 May to Thursday 30 May 2024.

The ICEB General Assembly is proudly hosted by The Braille Authority of New Zealand Aotearoa Trust. We look forward to welcoming you at the General Assembly as we celebrate the theme Two Centuries of Braille and the past and future tasks of ICEB.

Read about the General Assembly, including the venue hotel, the Programme, and to complete the Registration Form.

Every 18 months or so, Web Accessibility IN Mind (WebAIM) runs a survey to assess current screen reader usage patterns and compare them to usage patterns in the past. This is extremely valuable data which influences the advice given by accessibility professionals.

Survey number 10 is currently running until 31 January, and as well as asking about screen reader choice and usage, it also asks whether you use a braille display.

We encourage you to take the survey
https://webaim.org/projects/screenreadersurvey10/

As the days get shorter and the nights get colder, we’re inviting you to join us for a cosy fireside chat to round off the year on Tuesday at 7:30 PM.

How do you write and address your Christmas cards? How do you know whose Christmas presents are whose? And what part does braille play in all of this?

We’ll be joined by our expert Braille for Beginners team, Mel Pritchard and Chantelle Griffiths, to get the conversation started, but we’d love to hear your ideas too – and if you have any other Christmas-themed braille topics, feel free to throw them into the mix as well!

Register for the Masterclass here.

To join by phone, please use these details:

• Phone number: 0131 460 1196
• Meeting ID: 856 2228 9754
• Passcode: 123456

We have been asked to share the following information:

Christine Richman who lives in Teignmouth is prepared to offer face to face tuition to people wishing to learn the braille music code. She has taught within a special school before retiring, and one of our Braille Bar participants took some lessons with her last month which she found useful.

Christine is prepared to do this from November to March. She would be happy for you to call her on 01626775154 so that she can tell you herself what she can do.