• The new face of braille at the Foundation
• 2009 Louis Braille Bicentenary Celebrations
• Braille is Knowledge
• Freda’s Introduction
• International Council on English Braille news
• Bits from the Web
• The Braille Learners At Primary Immersion Course

June 2008

The new face of braille at the Foundation

Hello everyone,

This is the first edition of the Braille Mail, the Foundation’s newsletter about all things braille produced by Lisette Wesseling, Braille Awareness Consultant. With a change of face comes a slight change of name to this newsletter. Apart from this however, the passion and whole-hearted enthusiasm for braille remains unchanged. I am stepping into some venerable shoes left by my predecessor Julie Woods, Whose work I applaud. She will be a hard act to follow.

However, I am not entirely alone, since on 3 June, I was joined by my colleague Freda Siaosi. She will introduce herself below and we will be working together to promote braille inside and outside the foundation.

The Braille mail will be produced every 2-3 months, and will be available in braille, by email, in print and on the Telephone Information Service (TIS). As well as publicising news from the Braille Literacy Panel and Braille Authority of New Zealand, I will be keen to include anything to do with braille from around the country. Please pass bits of news my way concerning yourself or your students. If you are listening to this on TIS, please leave me your comments and messages by choosing option 9. You are also welcome to email me at braille@rnzfb.org.nz, or you can write to me in braille at RNZFB, 121 Adelaide Road, Newtown, Wellington 6021, or contact me by phone on 0800 24 33 33.

Promoting braille is something Freda and I cannot do alone. We need your stories and ideas to fuel our fire.

2009 Louis Braille Bicentenary Celebrations

2009 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Louis Braille, the man who invented this wonderful series of dots which allows us to read. It is our aim to promote braille very widely next year with a series of events for our members and the general public. Several ideas are being worked on and we will keep you up-to-date with those as they are finalised.

To start the ball rolling I would like to ask you to contribute your ideas for a catchy slogan we could use in our promotional material. It needs to encompass a sense of pride in Louis’s work, and what braille means to us who, thanks to him, have the ability to read. Your prize will be seeing your slogan everywhere. Some ideas to get you thinking:

Braille 200,
A Touch of Genius.
I’m sure we can come up with something original between us.

Secondly, we would like to hear your stories about how you use braille. We will gather these stories and eventually put them on the website to let everyone know how important braille really is to us. Feel free to use the following three questions as a guide, or to get your thinking started:
1. When did you learn braille?
2. For what purposes do you use braille in your daily life? 
3. How would your life be different if braille did not exist?

Braille is Knowledge

This is certainly a true statement. Some of you may also remember it as a braille badge which the Foundation gave to children as a prize for achievement in braille learning. We are hoping to revive this badge in some ways part of the Louis Braille celebrations, and are wondering whether anyone who has one is willing to lend their badge to us so we can show potential designers what it used to look like. I promise to look after it very carefully to ensure it safely returned to you. If you have one you are willing to lend me, please let me know.

Freda’s Introduction

Talofa and warm greetings to you all.   
My name is Freda Siaosi, the new addition to the Community Education and Awareness team. My role within the team is that of Braille Awareness Consultant/Awareness Trainer - a part time position of two days.  The other three days I work as the Pacific Services Coordinator for the Foundation.  My involvement here is with Pacific members and includes an advocacy role in the various community groups.
Two of my passions are people and training which these roles have in common. 
I am excited about the new learning and challenges this new role brings to my work within the Foundation.   

International Council on English Braille news

From 6-10 April, a contingent of lucky people went to Melbourne to attend the 4th General Assembly (GA) of the International Council on English Braille (ICEB). Participating countries were Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Nigeria, South Africa, United Kingdom and United States. Proceedings included a keynote address by Professor Ron McCallum AO, Professor of Industrial Law, University of Sydney, general business reporting, developments with the Unified English Braille (UEB) project and its implementation, Australian case studies, a feature session on publishing and developments with DAISY and presentation of papers.  The conference was hosted by the Australian Braille Authority supported by Vision Australia who welcomed visitors to social events and a tour of their Kooyong premises. 
Among the things discussed were implementation    of the Unified English Braille Code (UEB), launch of a braille code for the international phonetic alphabet, embosser-produced tactile graphics and braille in the visual arts. Our very own Mary Schnackenberg was appointed president of the ICEB Executive Committee. Congratulations Mary! Your vast knowledge and experience will be put to good use.

Bits from the Web

Blind people read books too! Announcing the launch of the WBU's Right to Read Global Campaign Blind and partially sighted people enjoy reading books just as much  as the rest of us. However, only 5% of books are ever published in formats that blind and partially sighted people can read, such as audio, braille and large print. 23rd April 2008 saw the launch, in Amsterdam, of the World  Blind Union's International Right to Read Campaign, which will  advocate globally for accessible books. The event was organised in  close collaboration with the Secretariat of the Amsterdam 2008 World  Book Capital which celebrates reading this year with the theme "open  book". Mrs Judith Belinfante, Chair of the Amsterdam 2008 WBC Foundation and  Mr Mauro Rossi, UNESCO's Chief Delegate to the Amsterdam WBC Launch, attended the WBU Right to Read Press Conference and heard Dr William Rowland, President of the World Blind Union, explain "For far too long the book has been closed for blind people. The  International Right to Read Campaign aims to open it". Bente Dahl Rathje, Chair of the IFLA Libraries for the Blind Section, added "Libraries exist to serve ALL members of the public. However, we need more books to be published in braille, audio and large print in order to fully achieve our mission". Anne Bergman, Director of the Federation of European Publishers, also spoke at the event, and underlined the will of publishers to work  with visually impaired people to publish more books which blind people can read. The International Right to Read Alliance is a partnership between the World Blind Union and the Libraries for the Blind Section of the  International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA), and it will work with publishers, booksellers, libraries and many others to create a world where blind people can read the same book at the same time and for the same price as  everyone else.

WBU, working with its 160 National Member Organisations, will be  establishing National Right to Read Alliances, bringing together  stakeholders, including librarians, University Disabled Students  Support Teams, Ministries of Education Special Education Units and other Service Providers, all of whom have an interest in promoting the need for accessibility for visually impaired people. The campaign will pursue four main objectives, namely:

•    To work proactively with publishers to help them publish many more accessible books
•    To form National Right to Read Alliances to give visibility to the visually impaired reading community
•    To lobby, in the 120 countries that currently do not have copyright legislation on exceptions, governments to enact copyright exceptions for the visually impaired people. Such legislation would facilitate the production of accessible formats, such as audio, braille and large print without the need to re-clear copyright.
•    To field test, in the 60 countries that already have copyright legislation for exceptions for visually impaired people, the cross  border export/import of accessible formats created under these exceptions to validate the compatibility of exceptions of different legal jurisdictions. Evidence gained from these field trials will be  presented to both Publishers and the World Intellectual Property Organisation's Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights. During the event WBU demonstrated the world's first fully accessible book 'Blindness and the Visionary' by Sir John Coles. Published in 2006, this biography of Sir John Wilson, founder of Sightsavers International http://www.sightsavers.org Is published by Giles de la Mare http://www.gilesdelamare.co.uk and provides, tucked into every copy, on a Daisy CD an audio copy of the  book and special formats for printing the book in braille and large print. In recognition of the world's first 'same day same cost book' the WBU has welcomed Giles de la Mare as a 'Pioneer Publisher' and gratefully appreciates its offer to support the International Right to Read Campaign. Later in the evening, at the official launch party of Amsterdam 2008 World Book Capital, William Rowland presented a copy of the book to both Her Royal Highness Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands", Patron of UNESCO Amsterdam WBC 2008 and to Mr Job Cohen, the Mayor of Amsterdam, whose wife is visually impaired.

The Braille Learners At Primary Immersion Course

Just before the end of term 1, 11 children had the opportunity to spend several days together increasing their braille skills. Organised by BLENNZ and held on the Homai campus, children spent time in the library, something many of them rarely get to do nowadays. For those of us who attended Homai, the braille library was available to us much of the time, which opened up opportunities of discovering a love of reading and braille. The Braille Immersion course gave these children this same opportunity, along with The Braille Challenge called Fish for a Braille Book. Each child has committed to reading in braille A set number of books appropriate to their reading level and age by the end of term 2.

Rene Patete, one of the children has read a couple already, and is aiming for 5 books by the end of term 2. She thinks braille is a great way for blind people to get information. She likes contracted braille better than uncontracted braille because it makes writing and reading quicker. The Braille note is her favourite braille technology because it has a braille keyboard and a braille display.
She says: “I really loved the course. I liked getting to see friends I hadn’t seen for a long time. I also loved the creative dance performance.”
Rene’s mother Leticia said the peer support is hugely important for these children who don’t get to meet other blind people very often. For her, the highlight was the panel of young blind adults talking about their experiences using technology. The point was very strongly made that technology in no way replaces braille, but  enhances and strengthens it. Nothing can replace the written word.

That’s it for this first issue of the Braille Mail. Please leave me your comments either by email, on the TIS, or in braille. This includes the answers to the braille questions and your offers to lend me your “braille is knowledge” badge. If you would like to change the format in which you read this newsletter, please let me know that too and I will send it to you in your preferred format.

See you next time.

Lisette Wesseling
Braille Awareness Consultant
RNZFB