Press Release
April 2017
For Immediate Release
Contact: Jennifer Dunnam, Chair
Braille Authority of North America
612-767-5658
chair@brailleauthority.org
The Braille Authority of North America (BANA), which meets face-to-face semiannually, held its 2017 spring meeting March 12–14 in San Francisco, California, at the San Francisco Airport Marriott Waterfront Hotel. This meeting was hosted by the California Transcribers and Educators of the Blind and Visually Impaired (CTEBVI), a BANA member organization, and was held in conjunction with CTEBVI's annual conference.
During its three-day meeting, the BANA Board reviewed semiannual reports from its eighteen committees and acted on committee recommendations. The Board welcomed Vivian Seki, the new representative from the Hadley Institute for the Blind and Visually Impaired, and approved the application for full membership of the Accessibility Solutions and Research Center (AMAC) in Atlanta, Georgia.
The Board also engaged in discussions designed to move forward an updated BANA strategic plan. Board members assembled into two work groups of equal size. One group will consider actions BANA should take to address perspectives and issues concerning braille for mathematics and science. The other group will deal with actions BANA should take toward more effective and timely development, maintenance, and publication of braille codes and guidelines. For the next several months, the groups will work on these topics by conference call and will report their progress at the fall BANA Board meeting.
The fall 2017 Board meeting, hosted by the Hadley Institute for the Blind and Visually Impaired, will be held November 1–4 in Winnetka, Illinois.
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.
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