Press Release
October 2013
For Immediate Release
CONTACT: Frances Mary D'Andrea, Chair
Braille Authority of North America
Phone: 412-521-5797
Email: literacy2@mindspring.com
The Braille Authority of North America (BANA), which meets face-to-face semiannually, will hold its 2013 fall meeting November 8—10 in Louisville, KY. This meeting will be hosted by the American Printing House for the Blind (APH), a BANA member organization. Meetings on Friday, November 8, will take place at APH, which is located at 1839 Frankfort Avenue. Meetings on November 9 and 10, including an Open Forum to which the community is invited, will be held at the Hyatt Regency Louisville, located at 311 South Fourth Street.
As always, interested parties are invited to observe the BANA Board meetings. Items on the Board's agenda include reports from all of BANA's technical committees such as music, math, foreign language, and tactile graphics. In-depth reports will be presented by the Unified English Braille (UEB) Task Force, the Publications Committee, and the Braille Research Committee. If you are interested in observing the BANA meeting, please contact BANA Chair Frances Mary D'Andrea at 412-521-5797 or by email at literacy2@mindspring.com.
Saturday morning, November 9, from 10:00 till 11:30, BANA will host an Open Forum that provides a venue for participants to discuss braille with the Board and to learn more about the workings of BANA. Members of the BANA Board will share the evolving plans for the transition to UEB and will report on the UEB Transition Forum being held in October. Open Forum participants are encouraged to discuss their views and suggestions surrounding braille and its future. Braille readers, teachers, and students as well as producers and distributors of braille are encouraged to take advantage of this opportunity to participate in a round-table discussion with the members of the BANA Board. The Open Forum will be held in the Gulfstream room at the Hyatt Regency Louisville. To reserve your space at the Open Forum and to ensure accurate counts for handouts, contact Frances Mary D'Andrea as indicated above.
For additional resource information, visit www.brailleauthority.org
The Board of BANA consists of appointed representatives from seventeen member organizations of braille producers, transcribers, teachers, and consumers.
The mission of the Braille Authority of North America is to assure literacy for tactile readers through the standardization of braille and/or tactile graphics.
The purpose of BANA is to promote and to facilitate the uses, teaching, and production of braille. Pursuant to this purpose, BANA will promulgate rules, make interpretations, and render opinions pertaining to braille codes and guidelines for the provisions of literary and technical materials and related forms and formats of embossed materials now in existence or to be developed in the future for the use of blind persons in North America. When appropriate, BANA shall accomplish these activities in international collaboration with countries using English braille. In exercising its function and authority, BANA shall consider the effects of its decisions on other existing braille codes and guidelines, forms and formats; ease of production by various methods; and acceptability to readers.