The Australian Braille Authority was pleased to present a poster and display of our guidelines at the SPEVI Conference for South Pacific Educators in Vision Impairment in Adelaide, January 2020. Our thanks are extended to Kathy Riessen for this work helping to promote ABA and braille.

The Conference is well attended by specialist vision teachers from Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. There was also representation for accessible format producers, O&M specialists, parents and the University sector. Some of the braille-related highlights of the Conference are described below.

Emily White of Melbourne University delivered an excellent keynote presentation and call for more research on the topic of braille literacy with involvement from expert practitioners. Strategies for encouraging early tactile literacy was presented by Lea Nagel (SVRC), Trish Bishop (BLENNZ), Meredith Pitcher (BLENNZ) and Sonali Marathe (RIDBC); and research on acquisition of braille skills was presented by Frances-Mary d’Andrea (University of Pittsburgh) and Tricia d’Apice (RIDBC).

ABA extends our congratulations to Josie Howse, who was awarded Honorary Life Membership of SPEVI in recognition of her significant contribution to the field of vision impairment in Australia and internationally during the past 41 years.  In bestowing Honorary Life Membership, SPEVI recognises Josie’s passion for education and braille literacy for children who learn by touch.

Vision Australia displayed new products including Code Jumper for accessible coding and Braille Lego, to be distributed to schools next year.

All conference presentations will be made available on the SPEVI website at www.spevi.net/conference/.