[nfbmi-talk] braille reading contest

gkitchen ghkitchen at comcast.net
Sat Oct 16 19:39:04 UTC 2010



Hi,

I just registered for this. Is there anyone out there that would like to form a team?
BRAL_Adult_Contest_Rules_20100927[1].pdf
Three whozit icons on top of an open book.
Braille Readers Are Leaders 2010-2011
2nd Annual Contest for Adult Braille Readers
Table of Contents
General Contest Information 2
Important Dates 3
Breaking Down the Contest 4
Prizes 5
Rules 6
Reading Material Guidelines 7
Recording Your Reading 8
Common Questions 10
Contact Us 11
General Contest Information
SPONSORS: National Association to Promote the Use of Braille (NAPUB), National Organization of 
Parents of Blind Children (NOPBC), National Federation of the Blind (NFB) Jernigan Institute
PURPOSE: to promote the joy of reading for pleasure; to promote a pride in Braille as a viable 
literacy medium equal to print; and to demonstrate the importance of independent reading in the 
development of Braille literacy skills.
ELIGIBILITY: blind and low vision Braille-reading individuals 18 years of age or older who are no 
longer enrolled in compulsory educational programming in the United States and Canada are eligible 
to compete in the contest.
REGISTRATION: registration is open from October 1, 2010, through the end of the contest 
(January 4, 2011). Registration is available online, or may be mailed and/or faxed to:
National Federation of the Blind
Braille Readers Are Leaders Contest
200 East Wells Street
at Jernigan Place
Baltimore, MD 21230
Fax: (410) 659-5129
Web: www.nfb.org/BRAL
E-mail: BrailleReadersAreLeaders at nfb.org
IMPORTANT DATES
. October 1, 2010: registration for the contest opens and continues until the end of 
the contest. 
. November 1, 2010: contest begins and participants start tracking their reading.
. January 4, 2011: Louis Braille's birthday marks the end of the contest and the 
last day participants can count their pages. 
. January 18, 2011: all final entry documentation for the regular contest and 
special awards must be submitted to the NFB Jernigan Institute by midnight. This 
includes reading logs, letters of nomination, and final entry forms. 
. March, 2011: prizes are mailed out. NOTE: Prizes will be mailed "free matter 
for the blind" and thus delivery of packages may be delayed and may vary greatly 
depending on the package's destination.
Breaking Down the Contest
1) Regular Contest: everyone participates in the main contest where contestants compete 
against peers in their same category to read the most Braille pages during the two-month reading 
period. There are five categories in the regular competition: beginner, intermediate, advanced, 
expert, and parent/teacher. Participants in the beginner category read uncontracted Braille only, or 
read contracted Braille at a rate of 80 or fewer words per minute (wpm). Participants in the intermediate 
category read contracted Braille at a rate of 80-160 wpm. Those in the advanced category read 
contracted Braille at a rate of 160-220 wpm. Individuals who qualify for the expert category read over 
221 wpm. Sighted parents and teachers of the blind qualify for the parent/teacher category. 
NOTE: to determine your reading speed pick a Braille passage and read over it once 
casually. Set a timer for one minute. Start the timer and begin to read. When the timer 
sounds mark your spot. Go back and count how many words you read. Any word in the 
English language counts as a "word" in this test. So, the word "a" counts as one and 
the word "knowledge" counts as one even though it is only one character in contracted 
Braille. So, if you read the sentence, "Sally and Bob are coming home from a long trip," 
you read ten words. Repeat this one-minute test three times with the same passage. 
Add your scores up and divide by three to get your average. Use this number to determine 
which category is appropriate for you.
2) Leader Board: throughout the two month reading period participants have the opportunity to 
update their "pages read" at www.nfb.org/BRAL as often as they wish for a chance to get their 
name on the Leader Board. The Leader Board will be updated at four secret dates throughout the 
contest. 
3) Braille Readers Are Leaders Team of the Year Award: participants may opt to compete 
as a member of a team in addition to competing in the regular contest as an individual. The Braille 
Readers Are Leaders Team of the Year Award is given to the team that demonstrates the best combination 
of the following: number of pages read, team spirit, and incorporation of readers at all levels. 
A team may consist of as many as five and as few as two participants. Teams may demonstrate team 
spirit in any of the following ways: keeping a blog to encourage each other; creating a Facebook group 
in which members discuss their progress; creating a Twitter account for the team through which 
the team announces its progress; announcing team progress at NFB chapter meetings (this must be 
confirmed by the president of the chapter); holding a "read-a-thon;" or any other creative means. All 
members of a given team must participate in the regular competition. All teams must comply with the 
same registration regulations as individual participants. Teams will submit an additional registration 
form and an essay detailing their team work throughout the contest.
Prizes 
EVERYONE
. Certificate of Participation 
. T-Shirt 
TOP READERS
. Mystery Prize: awarded to participants whose names appear on the Leader Board 
during the two month reading period
. Cash: 
To encourage novice Braille readers, contestants in the beginner category have 
multiple opportunities to win. The top three contestants in the beginner category 
will each receive a cash prize. The beginner who places first will receive a $50 
cash prize; the second and third place beginners will each receive a $25 cash prize. 
Beginners who finish in fourth through tenth place will be entered into a beginner 
drawing for a $50 cash prize. The top ten contestants in the beginner category will be 
entered into the grand prize drawing as well.
Contestants in the four other categories have an opportunity to win cash prizes 
too! The three participants in each category (intermediate, advanced, expert, and 
parent/teacher) who read the highest number of pages will be entered in two drawings 
(a category drawing and a grand prize drawing). The winner of the drawing 
in each category will receive $50 cash (a total of four winners). The twenty-two 
(ten beginner, three intermediate, three advanced, three expert, and three parent/
teacher) contestants entered in the grand prize drawing have a chance to win $100 
cash. Individuals may also win by submitting a winning application for the Dual 
Reader Award. NOTE: Employees of the National Federation of the Blind are welcome 
to participate in this contest but they are not eligible to receive any prize money.
TEAMS
. Plaque: for the one or two teams that wins the Team of the Year Award 
. National Recognition: the team that wins the Team of the Year Award will become the 
spokes team for next year's contest. 
RULES FOR THE CONTEST
. Contestants must meet the eligibility criteria.
. All materials read for the contest must meet the contest criteria for acceptable 
materials (see below).
. All materials must be read from November 1, 2010, through January 4, 2011.
. Incomplete information on the registration and entry forms may disqualify a 
contestant for prizes or awards.
. All decisions of the judges are final.
Interviews: The contestant, certifying authority, and/or parent may be contacted 
for an interview if the contest judges have questions or need additional information 
about an entry. Judges may, based upon the information available to them, adjust 
the number of pages or disqualify a contestant. All decisions of the judges 
are final.
Reading Material Guidelines
The overall purpose is to encourage extracurricular reading for pleasure, so the following lists of 
acceptable and unacceptable contest reading materials follow this general guideline. 
Acceptable-recreational reading. All material must have identifiable source information that can 
be checked for verification, such as author, publisher, or sponsoring organization.
. 
Books: fiction or nonfiction, hardback or paperback, Braille only or print-and-Braille format, 
mass-produced or individually transcribed
. 
Magazines 
. 
Stand-alone articles or tracts with identifiable authors and/or publishers; for example, NFB Braille 
literature (such as banquet speeches), or reprints of articles that originally appeared in the 
Braille 
Monitor 
. 
Manuals for club activities
. 
Religious publications: portions of the 
Bible, Koran, Torah
, Sunday school lessons, meditations, etc.
Not Acceptable-materials required for work, reference materials, and other reading material not 
designed to be read in its entirety
. 
Textbooks and related materials assigned as required reading in a post-secondary educational 
setting
. 
Reading required by one's employer
. 
Dictionary 
. 
Encyclopedia 
. 
Menus 
. 
Cookbooks 
. 
Items without identifiable source information that can be checked for verification; such as author, 
publisher, or sponsoring organization
Recording Your Reading
Visit www.nfb.org/BRAL and download the official Braille Readers Are Leaders Reading Log. Save 
the file somewhere you can easily get to it, appending the file name with the student's last name. 
To receive full credit for the pages read during the contest it is crucial that the material read is 
recorded accurately. Before the contest begins, look over the spreadsheet and instructions to ensure 
you understand what information you will be required to provide. 
Filling out Your Reading Log: This information will be clearer if you reference the spreadsheet while 
reading the instructions. Below the spreadsheet will be referenced by columns.
1. Reading Material Citation Columns: provide the title and author for all material. In addition, please 
provide the International Standard Book Number (ISBN). This ten- or thirteen-digit number aides us in 
tracking down books and verifying their page length. In Braille books the ISBN is generally listed in the 
first few pages of the book with the other bibliographical information.** 
2. Material Transcribed By Columns: please tell us where you acquired the Braille reading material.
a. Bookshare: if you downloaded a .brf file from www.Bookshare.org, please place 
an "x" in the "Bookshare" column for that entry.
b. WEB-BRAILLE: if you downloaded a .brf file of a book transcribed by the National 
Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) at www.loc.gov/nls, 
please place an "x" in the "WEB-BRAILLE" column for that entry.
c. Home: if the material was transcribed at the contestant's home please place an "x" 
in the "Home" column for that entry.
d. Agency: If you received the material in hard copy Braille from an organization/
agency please place an "x" in the "agency" column for that entry. 
3. Type of Material Columns: place an "x" in the appropriate column identifying whether the material 
read was a book, magazine, article, or other.
4. Date Completed or Stopped Reading Columns: please indicate the date the contestant completed 
the book or stopped reading the book. If the contestant begins a book, takes a break from reading it, 
and then picks the book back up to finish it you only need to record the final date.
5. Pages Read Columns: we are interested in the total number of pages read by the contestant in 
each entry during the contest. 
a. Number of Pages: record the number of Braille pages* read in the book. If the 
contestant only read 200 pages of a 400-page book then you should record "200" in the 
"Number of Pages" column. 
b. Total Pages: if you are filling out the Reading Log electronically, the spreadsheet will 
calculate the total pages read for each entry and automatically insert the correct value 
in this field. NOTE: If you print the spreadsheet to keep a hard copy log, there will be 
zeros printed in this column; we will disregard these.
6. Notes Columns: the last page of the spreadsheet provides a space where you can supply any other 
relevant information about an entry. Please list the entry number to which each note pertains.
Switching Sheets within a Workbook: if you are filling out your log electronically, you may need to 
switch between the "Instructions" sheet and the "Reading Log" sheet. There are two ways to do this. 
In the bottom left corner of the window you should see two tabs, "Instructions" and "Reading Log;" 
click on the sheet you want to view. Alternatively you can navigate between sheets by pushing control 
and page-up or control and page-down.
Hard Copy vs. Electronic Reading Logs: we encourage you to fill the spreadsheet out electronically as 
it will do all the calculations for you. Electronic logs can also be uploaded to the Web site at the end of 
the contest, which will save you time. If you prefer to keep a hard copy log, you may print the spreadsheet. 
Please write legibly, double check your math, and ensure you fill out the first four rows of the 
spreadsheet with the contestant and certifying authority's information. Reading logs must reach the 
NFB Jernigan Institute by January 18, 2011. If you are mailing a hard copy log, be sure to get it in the 
mail immediately after the contest ends to ensure it arrives in time.
*See the Common Questions section of the Contest rules for more details.
**We are aware that some Braille books do not have ISBNs; if you cannot find the ISBN for a book, 
you may leave this field blank. 
If you still have questions, please contact us.
National Federation of the Blind
Braille Readers Are Leaders Contest
200 East Wells Street
at Jernigan Place
Baltimore, MD 21230
Fax: (410) 659-5129
Web: www.nfb.org/BRAL
E-mail: BrailleReadersAreLeaders at nfb.org
Common Questions
1. What if I didn't know about the contest until after it began? Can I still enter? YES.
2. If I enter late, can I still count the Braille pages I have read since November 1? YES, but only if you 
can verify that you read those pages.
3. What constitutes a Braille page? Each side of an embossed piece of paper is considered one page. 
If you read both sides, then you have read two pages. This is true even if there are only two Braille 
lines on one side.
4. Can I count title pages, tables of contents, Brailled descriptions of illustrations, etc.? YES.
5. What if I don't finish reading a book? Can I count the pages that I did read? YES.
6. Can I read the same book more than once? NO.
7. How do I count pages if I read material from the Bible? You must give a reference to the book(s) 
of the Bible you read (Proverbs, Matthew, etc.), AND you must read whole pages. Please do not give 
chapters and verses read. Acceptable-Bible, Book of Job: 20 pages. Not acceptable-Psalms 8, 24, 
and 32.
8. I read a lot of electronic books with a refreshable Braille display. Are these eligible? MAYBE. If so, 
how do I count Braille pages? Formatted files with a .brf extension-for example, files from Bookshare.
org and NLS WEB-BRAILLE-will have Braille page numbers in the file. These are acceptable. If 
you wish to use other scanned or non-.brf formatted files for the contest, you must contact the contest 
officials in advance for guidance and approval in how to determine the Braille page count. PLEASE 
NOTE: IF USING A REFRESHABLE DISPLAY, ANY SPEECH ACCESS ASSOCIATED WITH THE BRAILLE 
DISPLAY MUST BE TURNED OFF AT ALL TIMES DURING THE READING OF PAGES FOR THIS CONTEST.
9. I have trouble finding enough Braille material. Do you have any suggestions? YES. The National 
Federation of the Blind has free Braille materials suitable for blind youth, including recent issues of 
the Braille Monitor magazine and Braille copies of our Kernel Book series. To request a literature list 
(large print or Braille) contact: National Federation of the Blind, Independence Market, 200 East Wells 
Street at Jernigan Place, Baltimore, Maryland 21230; (410) 659-9314, extension 2216; or eringlein@
nfb.org. 
Do you still have questions? Contact us at:
National Federation of the Blind
Braille Readers Are Leaders Contest
200 East Wells Street
at Jernigan Place
Baltimore, MD 21230
Phone: (410) 659-9314, extension 2293
Fax: (410) 659-5129
Web: www.nfb.org/BRAL
A winning team of adults from last year poses with thier plaque.
National Federation of the Blind logo
Braille Readers Are Leaders Contest
200 East Wells Street
at Jernigan Place
Baltimore, MD 21230
Phone: (410) 659-9314, extension 2293
Fax: (410) 659-5129
Web: www.nfb.org/BRAL


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