by Tristan Clare

The 4th of January marks the anniversary of the birth of Louis Braille, the inventor of braille. World Braille Day was established by the United Nations in 2019 to raise awareness of the importance of braille in the context of education, freedom of expression and opinion, and social inclusion. The UN emphasises the provision of braille and other accessible forms of communication in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

As a member of the Executive of the Australian Braille Authority, one of my more pleasurable duties is composing a post to mark World Braille Day. Anyone in blindness and low vision spaces knows that today marks the anniversary of Louis Braille’s birth. Whether you love braille, it isn’t your medium or you’re a user who never thinks much about it, you know it’s World Braille Day and people are going to have things to say about it. It may be the frequent question about whether braille is relevant (yes, yes it is), or the related one about whether accessing material using screenreaders and narrated audio only can be called reading (not going there today).

The subject of my post this year is slightly different. I can’t claim all the credit for this idea, although it is one that I am passionate about. A very articulate post from a Facebook friend got me thinking about it and, with her permission, I want to post the following message. These are my words, not hers, but the subject matter is very similar.

If you’re the parent, guardian, carer or teacher of a child with residual vision, please consider teaching them braille as well as print. As a consumer and producer of braille and as a person with residual vision, I can tell you that having access to both braille and print has been enormously beneficial for me. My knowledge of print means that I can decipher the errors that come from bad scanning or unusual print fonts. My knowledge of braille is not only the foundation of my current livelihood as a braille transcriber, it means that I can read confidently and fluently while maintaining eye contact with an audience, have access to key points for a presentation and curl up with a good book.

If you are teaching small children with low vision to read print, consider giving them access to dual media. The books are visually attractive and they give the student opportunities to learn braille and print simultaneously. Young brains are incredibly elastic and receptive to information.

Also, if you are teaching braille to students who also read large print, be careful about the messages around braille. For instance, if you say “Well you should learn this because you’ll probably go blind in the future”, then the student will view braille as one of the trappings of sight loss, not a reading medium in its own right.

Also, don’t present braille as a second-class reading system to print, or tell students that braille readers are statistically slower than print readers. Regardless of the accuracy of such statistics for people accessing regular-sized print with full sight, it doesn’t apply to large print readers with low vision. Also, if you tell someone that they’re probably going to be a slow reader and behind their peers, it sets up a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I’m definitely not against the teaching of large print. I think all readers, even totally blind people who will never see print on a page, should know the shapes of print letters. It could mean the difference between being able to read a sign with raised lettering independently or needing assistance to do so. Knowing the shape of print can help you decipher that imperfect OCR of an inaccessible document or work out which end is up on a product that uses raised print lettering. Kids with residual vision can and should be taught to read print.

But they should also have access to braille from as early an age as possible. Braille should be normalised, incorporated into fun activities and presented as a respectable reading medium, not a last resort that you’re stuck with if you’re unfortunate enough to lose your sight.

At the 2021 Annual Meeting of the Australian Braille Authority, nominations were received for the positions of Chair (Jordie Howell – Vision Australia & SVRC) and Executive Committee members Kathy Riessen (SASVI), Tristan Clare (NextSense), and Melissa Fanshawe (SPEVI & University of Southern Queensland). They were elected without opposition.

At their first meeting, the new executive agreed to co-opt a further two people to fill the remaining empty General Committee Member positions. These were Josie Howse (nominated by SPEVI) and Scott Erichsen (nominated by Tristan Clare).

Congratulations and thanks to our 2021-2023 Executive Committee:

• Jordie Howell returns as Chair for her third and final term. She works as a braille music transcriber at Vision Australia and as a braille music teacher at the Statewide Vision Resource Centre (SVRC).  Jordie is Australia’s representative on the ICEB Executive Committee and Chairs the ICEB Braille Music Committee. She also represents Australia on the Onkyo Braille Essay Contest marking team. Jordie is a touch reader and an accomplished vocalist. She helped to write the  Australian Addendum for Braille Music Transcription and is a leader at the annual National Braille Music Camp.
• Kathy Riessen leads the braille production team at South Australia School for Vision Impaired (SASVI). She is the Chair of the ICEB Unified English Braille Code Maintenance Committee and has made major contributions to Australia’s braille guidelines including the Australian UEB Training Manual, the Australian Guidelines for Foreign Language Materials, the Australian Addendum for Braille Music Transcription, the Australian Braille Formatting Guidelines and the Duxbury Braille Translator Producers Manual.
• Josie Howse is a long-standing member of the ABA Executive, who brings a strong teacher perspective to discussions. She leads the Australian team administering the Trans-Tasman Certificate of Proficiency in Unified English Braille  and she responds daily to queries from braille learners using  UEB Online. Josie has represented Australia in the establishment of Unified English Braille at an international level since the very first meeting of the International Council on English Braille. Like Kathy, she has also made major contributions to Australia’s braille  and accessible format guidelines including  the Australian UEB Training Manual, the Round Table Guidelines for Accessible Assessment, and the Australian Braille Formatting Guidelines.
• Tristan Clare is a braille proofreader with the NextSense production team (formerly RIDBC). She has been a member of the ABA Executive since 2018 and is a member of the Australian Trans-Tasman Certificate of Proficiency in Unified English Braille Committee.
• Melissa Fanshawe joins the ABA Executive team after attending many meetings as Chair of the Queensland Regional Braille Forum. She is a vision specialist teacher, academic at the University of Southern Queensland, and parent of a vision impaired child.
• Scott Erichsen is a lifelong user of braille with skills in braille-related technology and braille music.

Kim Barber will also continue attending the ABA Executive meetings as Chair of the Sydney Regional Braille Forum. Kim is a vision specialist teacher and leads Braille and Large Print Services for the NSW Department of Education and Training.

We thank our outgoing ABA Executive members:

• Sam Taylor is a braille technology expert working for Pacific Vision. He represented Australia on the ICEB Braille Technology Committee and served the ABA Committee as minutes secretary. He also established the new platform for the ozbrl listserv.
• Leona Holloway was a long-standing member of the ABA Executive Committee serving first as minutes secretary and then as correspondence secretary, managing the ABA email account, ABA Facebook page, building the Round Table and ABA websites and maintaining the ABA website. Leona represented Australia on the ICEB Executive from 2016-2021, serving as the Public Relations Officer, and was the Australian representative to the UEB Code Maintenance Committee. She has made major contributions to national and international braille guidelines including the Rules of Unified English Braille, the Australian UEB Training Manual, the Australian Braille Formatting Guidelines and the Duxbury Braille Translator Producers Manual.

2021 marks the 40 year anniversary of the Australian Braille Authority and its parent organisation, the Round Table on Information Access for People with Print Disabilities Inc.

(c) CakesDecor https://cakesdecor.com/

This year was the first that we held our Annual Meeting online over Zoom, allowing more members to attend at a lower cost. We also introduced 5 minute features as part of the annual meeting, with video presentations from the Queensland Regional Braille Forum; Judy Dixon, the President of the International Council on English Braille; and Gonzalo Ernst, the creator of ABCBraille. The 2021 ABA Chair Report summarises the work done by ABA over the last two years.

This year was an election year. We are pleased to welcome back Jordie Howell as our ABA Chair for her third and final term. She will be supported by Executive Committee Members Kathy Riessen, Tristan Clare and Melissa Fanshawe. Two further vacancies will be filled by the incoming Executive at their first meeting.  Thanks are extended to outgoing Executive Committee members Leona Holloway and Sam Taylor.

You can read more about leaders in braille who have contributed to the Australian Braille Authority on our website at Australian Braille Honour Roll.

Australia is a member country of the International Council on English Braille (ICEB), which holds a General Assembly once every four years to conduct business and share developments in braille.

The 7th ICEB General Assembly will be held online for the first time in October 2020. Sessions will be held daily from Monday 19th to Friday 23rd October, 6am to 9am AEST daily. To register, simply send an email to ICEBconference@rnib.org.uk with your name, country and the days you would like to attend. You will then be sent the joining instructions, links to video presentations, and papers and reports in print and braille formats.

The program includes the following highlights with a healthy representation from Australia.

Monday 19 October

• Keynote Address by Dr. Aubrey Webson, Ambassador to the United Nations for Antigua and Barbuda
• Country reports
• Nominations for the ICEB Executive 2020-2024 term

Tuesday 20 October

• Braille Music papers, including Jordie Howell on innovation in braille music translation
• Report from the Braille Music Committee – Jordie Howell
• Report from the Public Relations Committee – Leona Holloway

Wednesday 21 October

• Braille Technology papers, including Kathy Riessen on following print
• Report from the Code Maintenance Committee – Kathy Riessen

Thursday 22 October

• Braille learning and literacy papers, including Tricia d’Apice on her study of braille fluency in Australia and New Zealand
• Elections

Friday 23 October

• Resolutions
• Introduction of the incoming Executive

The Australian Braille Authority is pleased to offer a series of online workshops.

The first workshop topic is “Quotes and apostrophes: using smart quotes in Word to ensure correct braille” and it will was conducted by Kathy Riessen.

The workshop was held on Thursday 18th June at 1pm AEST (12.30 pm SA and NT, 11 am WA, and 3 pm NZ and is expected to run for 90 minutes.

The workshop was designed to be as hands-on as much as possible. You can either just watch the demonstration OR if you have access to a second screen or another computer running Word you can try out the processes demonstrated for yourself.

This will be the first in a series of workshops planned in response to the restrictions of COVID-19 and the cancellation of this year’s Round Table Conference. Please contact us if you would like to suggest a topic for a future workshop.

Update

The materials used for demonstration purposes in the workshop and the slides are now available from our Braille Transcription page. The workshop recording is available for viewing on YouTube.

Presenters

Kathy Riessen presented the workshop. A member of the ABA Executive, the Coordinator of Accessible Format Production at South Australian School for Vision Impaired (SASVI) and the newly appointed Chair of ICEB’s Unified English Braille Code Maintenance Committee, Kathy has 30 years of experience in braille transcription of literary material, mathematics, music and languages. She loves solving technical braille problems and has generously shared her know-how and solutions through numerous workshops. She was co-editor of the UEB Australian Training Manual, a member of the working group that produced ABA’s DBT Producer’s Manual, and has contributed to numerous other braille guidelines and references.

The workshop was hosted by Leona Holloway, ABA’s Correspondence Secretary and Australia’s representative to the International Council on English Braille.

Hattie Douglass moderated the workshop.

Notes on using Zoom

If you have not used Zoom before, please familiarise yourself with the mute/unmute and chat functions as there will be time for questions at the end of the workshop.

Some recommended resources on accessibility in Zoom:

• Zoom accessibility FAQs
• Zoom accessibility instructions for people with visual impairments
• Zoom hot keys and keyboard shortcuts
• Zoom access with keyboard commands
• Jonathon Mosen on “Zoom from a blindness perspective“
• New Horizons podcast on Zoom for Teleconferencing by Blind Citizens Australia
• Using Zoom on a Braille Note Touch by Paths to Literacy
• Pro Zoom scripts for JAWS to allow greater control over alerts, chat messages, hand raising, etc.

The International Council on English Braille’s UEB Code Maintenance Committee is responsible for reviewing and further developing Unified English Braille and its official documentation.

Australia’s Kathy Riessen has been appointed as the new Chair of the UEB CMC from 1 June 2020. Kathy brings to the role 30 years of experience in braille transcription of literary material, mathematics, music and languages. She loves solving technical braille problems and has generously shared her know-how and solutions through numerous workshops. She was co-editor of the UEB Australian Training Manual, which forms the basis of UEB Online, created ABA’s Guidelines for Foreign Language Materials, and contributed to ABA’s Australian Braille Formatting Guidelines, ABA Braille Music Addendum and DBT Producer’s Manual. We wish Kathy the very best in her new role.

Australia’s thanks are extended to Phyllis Landon, who has stepped down from the role of CMC Chair after ten years, for the amazing amount of work she has dedicated to braille and for her sensitive and sensible leadership through many tricky issues.
Thanks also to Australia’s Bill Jolley, who has contributed his braille technical knowledge as an invited expert to the CMC. He has stepped down from this position, which will now be filled by Phyllis.

We look forward to the next four years of UEB code advancement.

As a volunteer-led organisation, the Australian Braille Authority is only as good as its members. With a change in executive members expected, we are keen to invite your participation even if you have not been involved with ABA previously. If you are passionate about braille and would like to work with us on braille promotion and development, this is the perfect time to contact us to discuss or consider nominating for the ABA executive. We would love your ideas and input as we work together to increase the profile of braille in Australia and internationally.

Call for Nominations – ABA Executive Committee

Nominations are invited for election to the Executive Committee of the Australian Braille Authority. If required, a ballot will be conducted at the ABA National Meeting, to be held on Saturday 2 May 2020 at Bayview Eden, 6 Queens road, Melbourne, Australia.

Successful candidates will serve from the conclusion of the 2020 National Meeting to the conclusion of the ABA’s 2022 National Meeting.

To be eligible for nomination, a person must be from, and have the support of, a member organisation of the Round Table on Information Access for People with Print Disabilities Inc. Nominations may only be submitted by an authorised representative of a Round Table member organisation.

Current members of the ABA Executive Committee are:
Chair: Jordie Howell, Vision Australia
General Committee Members:
Sam Taylor, Pacific Vision – Minutes Secretary;
Leona Holloway, Monash University – Correspondence Secretary;
Josie Howse, NSW Department of Education and Communities – Convenor of the Proficiency Examination Committee;
Kathy Riessen, South Australian School for Vision Impaired;
Tristan Clare, Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children.

Clauses 13 and 14 of the Australian Braille Authority’s Terms of Reference (see below) provide that the only specific position to be nominated is that of Chair. The other five members are nominated as General Executive Committee Members and specific roles will then be appointed from amongst their number. All members of the current Executive are eligible for re-election and may stand for any committee position. If there is more than one nomination for the position of Chair, or if there are more than five nominations for General Executive Committee positions, a ballot will be held at the Annual Meeting.

Emails containing nominations should be based on the following wording:
“I, John Smith, representing Blind Musicians Association, nominate Mary Jones, representing the Society of Blind Potters, for the position of Chair, (or) General Committee Member, on the ABA Executive Committee for the two-year term 2020-2022. I confirm that I am recognised by my organisation to submit this nomination, and that Mary Jones is authorised by her organisation to accept nomination for this position. Mary Jones has indicated to me her willingness and ability to accept this position.”

The nomination must be signed and dated by the nominator. Nominations should be submitted via email by 12.00pm on Wednesday 29 April 2020. An acknowledgement email will be sent to the nominator within 48 hours.

Nominations can be sent to:

• Leona Holloway, ABA Correspondence Secretary, aba@printdisability.org
• Jordie Howell, ABA Chair, jordie.howell@visionaustralia.org

Please follow up with another of the above contacts if confirmation is not received. Separate emails should be submitted for each person nominated and for each position sought.

Australian Braille Authority Terms of Reference
extract

Executive

13) The Executive will consist of the following:
a) Chair;
b) Immediate Past Chair; and
c) five other members.

14) The Chair and other members of the Executive will be elected and the Secretary/Treasurer will be appointed as follows:
a) the Chair is elected by the National Committee;
b) the other members are elected by the National Committee;
c) the Secretary/Treasurer is appointed by the Executive from among its members; and
d) the Immediate Past Chair is confirmed by the National Committee.

15) At least half of the Executive will be touch-readers of braille who are blind.

16) Each member of the Executive will hold office until the close of the second Annual Meeting of the ABA following the date of the member’s election/appointment.

17) The Chair is eligible for election to the same position for a maximum of three consecutive terms.

18) A casual vacancy for the Chair or other members of the Executive may be filled by the Executive for the remainder of the term.

19) Other persons may participate in meetings of the Executive by invitation of the Executive.

The archives at Vision Australia hold an incredibly rich slice of history around the organisation and its state based predecessors supporting people who were blind or had low vision. However, a stocktake has revealed unnecessarily large quantities of some types of braillers and braille equipment.

There are a quantity of Lavender and Stainsby crab writers, wooden baseboards (some with the markings of their original organisation), Stainsby crab with metal board kits in suitcases, Sewell raised line and interline frames, a few Tellatouch and some older Braille books. For tactile graphics lovers, there are some international country maps and Sewell raised line drawing kits.

If you are interested in obtaining your own piece of braille history, please contact Debra Mould at heritage@visionaustralia.org. She is available on Thursdays.
Collection preferred from Vision Australia’s Kooyong office, Glenferrie road, Kooyong, VIC.
If postage is required, it must be organised and paid for by the recipient.

Our thanks are extended to Vision Australia for their work in preserving braille history and ensuring that excess materials are shared with the community.