[nabs-l] Fwd: [BANA-Announce] BANA Adopts Unified English Braille (UEB) for United States

[David Andrews]

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>Press Release
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>November 2012
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>For Immediate Release
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>CONTACT: Frances Mary D'Andrea, Chair
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>Braille Authority of North America
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>Phone: 412-521-5797
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>Email: <mailto:literacy2 at mindspring.com>literacy2 at mindspring.com
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>BANA Adopts Unified English Braille (UEB) for United States
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>On November 2, 2012, the Braille Authority of North America (BANA) 
>set a new course for the future of braille in the United States 
>(U.S.) when it adopted Unified English Braille (UEB). The motion, 
>which passed decisively, specifies that UEB will eventually replace 
>the current English Braille American Edition and that the U.S. will 
>retain the Nemeth Code for Mathematics and Science Notation.
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>The transition to UEB will not be immediate and will follow a 
>carefully crafted timeline. Implementation plans will be formulated 
>with the input and participation of stakeholders from the consumer, 
>education, rehabilitation, transcription, and production 
>communities. Plans will take into consideration the various aspects 
>of creating, teaching, learning, and using braille in a wide variety 
>of settings. The plans will be designed to provide workable 
>transitions for all involved in braille use and production and to 
>minimize disruption for current braille readers.
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>UEB is based on the current literary braille code and was developed 
>with input from many people, primarily braille readers, who worked 
>to achieve an optimal balance among many key factors. Those factors 
>include keeping the general-purpose literary code as its base, 
>allowing the addition of new symbols, providing flexibility for 
>change as print changes, reducing the complexity of rules, and 
>allowing greater accuracy in back translation.
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>Letters and numbers will stay the same as they are in the current 
>literary code. There will be some changes to punctuation, but most 
>will remain the same. Some rules for the use of contractions will 
>change. Nine contractions will be eliminated, and some contractions 
>will be used more often. A FAQ providing more detail about changes 
>is available on the BANA website.
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>After implementation, the official braille codes for the United 
>States will be Unified English Braille; Nemeth Code for Mathematics 
>and Science Notation, 1972 Revision and published updates; Music 
>Braille Code, 1997; and The IPA Braille Code, 2008.
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>More detailed information about UEB and the motion that BANA passed 
>can be found on the BANA website at 
><http://www.brailleauthority.org/>www.brailleauthority.org.
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>The Board of BANA consists of appointed representatives from fifteen 
>member organizations of braille producers, transcribers, teachers, 
>and consumers.
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>The mission and purpose of the Braille Authority of North America 
>are to assure literacy for tactile readers through the 
>standardization of braille and/or tactile graphics. BANA promotes 
>and facilitates the use, teaching, and production of braille. It 
>publishes rules, interprets, and renders opinions pertaining to 
>braille in all existing codes. It deals with codes now in existence 
>or to be developed in the future, in collaboration with other 
>countries using English braille. In exercising its function and 
>authority, BANA considers the effects of its decisions on other 
>existing braille codes and formats; the ease of production by 
>various methods; and acceptability to readers.
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