[Community-Service] 2022 Global Braille Literacy Symposium, on Friday, June 17th from 1:00 to 5:00PM EDT

Mon May 23 19:15:20 UTC 2022

Braille Literacy Canada (BLC) will be holding its second annual virtual
braille symposium on Friday, June 17th, 2022 from 1 – 5 PM EDT (10am-2pm
Pacific/11am-3pm Mountain/Saskatchewan, 12pm-4pm Central, 2pm-6pm
Atlantic). This event will be of interest to braille readers, educators,
transcribers, parents, producers and anyone else with a passion for braille
literacy!

The schedule of events is as follows:

1:00pm EST: Revitalising Braille through a Grass Roots Community (Matthew
Horspool and Dave Williams, Braillists Foundation)
2:00pm EST: Hadley’s Braille for Everyday Use (Douglas Walker and Dr. Kim
Walker, Hadley)
3:00pm EST: What is the science of reading, and what does it teach us about
braille contractions? (Dr. Robert Englebretson, Rice University)
4:00pm EST: Walking Through Paths to Literacy For All Things Braille (Kate
Borg, Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired)
Each presentation will be approximately 30 minutes long, followed by a 15
minute question-and-answer period, and then a 15 minute intermission. More
information on our exciting line up of speakers is provided below.

We would like to take a moment to thank all of our sponsors who, through
their generous support, are helping to make this event a true success,
including by donating some incredible door prizes and special offers that
you will not want to miss!
HumanWare is the global leader in technology-based solutions for the
visually impaired. We offer a wide range of innovative products including
the BrailleNote Touch+, Brailliant braille display, the entire line of
Victor Reader digital audiobook players, Connect 12 electronic magnifiers,
Reveal 16 screens, and Explore ultra-compact electronic magnifiers.
Aille Design (pronounced: eye) is an inclusive clothing brand making a
fashion statement you can feel. We work directly with the blind and
visually impaired community to create clothing with beautiful braille
messages that are fully legible and customizable. Our designs can be used
for the functionality of the legible braille, can be dressed up as a unique
fashion piece, or worn to initiate conversation about disability inclusion
and the importance of braille. 5% of t-shirt sales are donated to low
vision organizations and all braille beadwork and accessibility cards are
handmade by Aille Design founder, Alexa Jovanovic. Request an accessibility
card with your purchase to receive detailed product information in braille
and large print format.
Kids Can Press, part of the Corus Entertainment family, is the largest
Canadian-owned children’s publisher and the 2017 recipient of the
distinguished Bologna Prize for the Best Children’s Publisher, North
America. The publisher’s catalog includes an award-winning list of over 700
picture books, nonfiction and fiction titles for children and young adults
that are translated and sold around the world. Kids Can Press will
celebrate its 50th Anniversary in 2023.
The event will be free of charge to members (or members of organizations
who are corporate members of BLC) and $20.00 for non-members. Interested in
becoming a BLC member? Annual membership is $20 – check out our membership
section for more information!

Registration will close on Wednesday, June 15th, 2022. Live automatic
captioning will be provided through Zoom, and written transcripts of the
presentations will be made available after the event. Once you have
submitted your registration, your request will be reviewed and a Zoom link
will be e-mailed to you within a few days. Email any questions you have to
[email protected].

Click below to REGISTER.
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0rcuqgqTgoHNE6DUAxovR0glJTq4v53gFQ

Revitalising Braille through a Grass Roots Community
Presented at 1pm EST (10am Pacific, 11am Mountain/Saskatchewan, 12pm
Central, 2pm Atlantic) by Matthew Horspool and Dave Williams of the
Braillists Foundation

Since 2014, the Braillists Foundation has been connecting UK braille users
with braille product manufacturers, and building a community of braille
enthusiasts. In 2020, in response to the Coronavirus pandemic, activity
went online and the Braillists community was made global. Through remote
Braille for Beginners courses, Masterclasses, a Book Club, a podcast, email
discussion groups and drop-in sessions, perceptions of braille within the
community have grown exponentially more positive, and collective enthusiasm
about braille has peaked the interest of external organisations and
individuals who were previously unconvinced about braille’s future.

In this workshop, you will hear first hand the story of the Braillists and
learn more about how our initiatives work. We will share how much of the
braille code we teach in our Braille for Beginners courses, explain what
factors we consider when programming our Masterclasses, and demonstrate how
teamwork and determination can lead to even the smallest of organisations
growing into a vibrant global movement.

Matthew Horspool has been formally involved with the Braillists since it
was registered as a charity in 2020, and took up the post of General
Manager in 2021. His career started in a school for the blind, where he
worked as a braille transcriber and teacher of technical braille codes. In
addition to his work with the Braillists, he is Braille Subject Lead for
the UK Association for Accessible Formats and works closely with the
International Council on English Braille. In his spare time, he sings in
the choir at Coventry Cathedral, where braille is invaluable to his success.

Hadley’s Braille for Everyday Use
Presented at 2pm EST (11am Pacific, 12pm Mountain/Saskatchewan, 1pm
Central, 3pm Atlantic) by Douglas Walker and Dr. Kim Walker of Hadley

Hadley’s new Braille for Everyday Use is a new approach to braille. It is
designed to make braille learning more engaging, accessible, and
successful. The program is allowing us to better serve the growing
population of older adults who are new to vision loss and would greatly
benefit from learning braille.

Douglas Walker has been an educator in the field of blindness for more than
thirty years. He currently serves as the Co-Director of Research and
Development at Hadley. Douglas is responsible for new concept designs as
well as, new content creation. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in education
from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, a Masters in Vision from
Vanderbilt University and a Certificate in Assistive Technology from
California State University Northridge.

Dr. Kim Walker is the Co-Director of Research and Development at the Hadley
Institute for the Blind and Visually Impaired. She has been an educator in
the field of blindness for over 30 years. Kim holds a Bachelor of Science
degree in education from Tennessee Technological University, a Masters
degree in Visual Impairments from Vanderbilt University and a Doctorate
degree in organizational leadership from Trevecca Nazarene University.

What is the science of reading, and what does it teach us about braille
contractions?
Presented at 3pm EST (12pm Pacific, 1pm Mountain/Saskatchewan, 2pm Central,
4pm Atlantic) by Dr. Robert Englebretson, Rice University

In this talk, I will give an overview of recent research from the cognitive
sciences about the neural, perceptual, cognitive, and linguistic
underpinnings of reading and writing. I will outline how this is relevant
to braille. I will share some of our team’s specific findings from our
ongoing research about the reading and writing of braille contractions, and
will focus on the problematic nature of contractions that bridge parts of
words, such as those that cross the boundary between prefixes and stems
(for example the AND contraction in ‘pandemic’ or the ED contraction in
‘redraw’) and those that cross the boundary between stems and suffixes (for
example the ED contraction in ‘freedom’ or the EA contraction in
‘mileage’). I will conclude with some suggestions of how our ongoing work
may contribute to evidence-based approaches to teaching and to the
continued development of braille.

Robert Englebretson is the chair of the Linguistics Department at Rice
University, where he teaches courses in linguistic analysis, discourse and
grammar, field methods, and research on braille. He has done fieldwork in
Indonesia, and has authored a book and several articles on Colloquial
Indonesian grammar.

Englebretson’s focus on braille research began in 2006 when he was
appointed to the International Council on English Braille’s Committee on
Linguistics and Foreign Languages. In this role, he revised and published a
braille version of the IPA to empower better access to phonetics for blind
and visually-impaired people working in language-related fields. In
November 2019, the Braille Authority of North America recognized
Englebretson with the Darleen Bogart Braille Excellence Award for this work.

Also in 2019, a team of researchers including Englebretson, Simon
Fischer-Baum (Rice University) and Cay Holbrook (University of British
Columbia) were awarded an Exploration research grant from the Institute for
Education Sciences (AWARD No. R324A190093) “Exploring the Knowledge,
Skills, and Strategies Teachers of Students with Visual Impairments Need to
Effectively Teach Braille Reading and Writing.” His work seeks to bring
braille research squarely into the mainstream of the reading sciences, and
to contribute to evidence-based approaches to improving braille literacy.

Walking Through Paths to Literacy For All Things Braille
Presented at 4pm EST (1pm Pacific, 2pm Mountain/Saskatchewan, 3pm Central,
5pm Atlantic) by Kate Borg, Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired

The Paths to Literacy website (pathstoliteracy.org) is a collaboration
between Perkins School for the Blind and Texas School for the Blind and
Visually Impaired (TSBVI). By combining our resources and expertise we
strive to help stimulate discussion in the field on the many different
aspects of literacy for students who are blind or visually impaired,
including those with additional disabilities or who are deafblind. In this
session, we will explore the new Paths to Literacy website and the many
resources that it has to offer!

Participants will gain knowledge to:
Navigate the new site
Easily find and access resources on braille literacy and instruction
Understand how to contribute content to the site
Kate Borg is the Director of Outreach Programs at TSBVI and the Texas
Deafblind Project Coordinator. Kate joined TSBVI in 2019 after working at
the Utah School for the Deaf and the Blind (USDB) and in Prince William
County, Virginia. Kate has been a school principal, instructional coach,
classroom teacher, and itinerant TVI working with students who are blind,
visually impaired, and deafblind. In addition to leading TSBVI’s Outreach
mission, Kate serves as the current president of the Texas Chapter of the
Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually
Impaired (TAER) and sits on research grant committees to improve
instruction for students with sensory impairment.

Braille Literacy Canada / Littératie braille Canada, founded in 1990 as the
Canadian Braille Authority, is a national charitable organization dedicated
to the promotion of braille as the primary medium of literacy for those who
are blind or visually impaired. BLC is recognized by the International
Council on English Braille as the authority for the development, adoption,
and establishment of standards relating to braille in Canada. With a
membership comprising organizations and individuals, educators, braille
transcribers, braille producers, parents of braille users and braille users
themselves, BLC represents a broad cross-section of those working with or
impacted by braille and is lead by a volunteer board of directors elected
by the BLC membership.
Website: https://www.brailleliteracycanada.ca or join us on social media:

Maggie Stringer
Phone: (443) 750-0070
Email: ravensfan784 at gmail.com
Community Service Facebook Page
<https://www.facebook.com/CommunityServiceDivision/>
NFB Website <http://www.nfb.org>
NFB Ohio Website <http://www.nfbohio.org>
“The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra."
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