December 2023

Braille Authority of North America Board Meeting 

Monday, December 18, 2023, 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time

 

1. Call to Order: Jen Goulden

Jen called the meeting to order at 1:03 P.M. Eastern Time.

2. Roll Call: Amber Pearcy

The following board members were in attendance:

  • Jen Goulden, CNIB (Canadian National Institute for the Blind), Chair

  • Mary Nelle McLennan, Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (AER), Vice Chair 

  • Amber Pearcy, National Braille Press (NBP), Secretary 

  • Danette Johnson, Hadley Institute for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Treasurer

  • Tamara Rorie, National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress (NLS), Immediate Past Chair 

  • Judy Dixon, American Council of the Blind (ACB)

  • Frances Mary (FM) D'Andrea, American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)

  • Kyle DeJute, American Printing House for the Blind (APH)

  • Tracy Gaines, California Transcribers and Educators for the Blind and Visually Impaired (CTEBVI)

  • Hollie Knight, Center for Inclusive Design and Innovation (CIDI) 

  • Diane Spence, National Braille Association (NBA) 

  • Jennifer Dunnam, National Federation of the Blind (NFB) 

  • Wendy Buckley, Perkins School for the Blind

  • Susan (Sue) Reilly, Administrative Assistant

  • Aquinas Pather, associate member Allyant

  • Emily Coleman, Council of Schools and Services for the Blind (COSB)

  • Holly Bullock, associate member Crawford Technologies

Not attending: 

  • Marie Zaldivar, Alternate Text Production Center (ATPC)

  • Tina Seger, Clovernook Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired

3. Braille Excellence Award Acceptance Speech: Frances Mary D’Andrea

FM shared the video of Sarah Morley Wilkins’ acceptance speech that was shown during the Braille Excellence Award presentation at Getting in touch with Literacy in early December.

4. Approval of Minutes from the Fall 2023 Meeting: Amber Pearcy

No additional changes were requested to the fall meeting minutes.

MSC: Amber moved to approve the meeting minutes from the fall 2023 meeting. FM seconded. Motion carried.

5. Chemistry Update: Frances Mary D’Andrea / Jennifer Dunnam

FM delivered the report of the board review panel. 

After the fall meeting, the board review panel gave the compiled board responses to the Chemistry Committee. The committee reviewed the board's feedback and made the requested corrections, after which the document was returned to the review panel. The panel found that the document revisions were satisfactory.  

The Chemistry Committee expressed gratitude for the thorough review conducted by the board. The board recognized the hard work of the committee, which has been ongoing for a decade.

MSC: FM moved that the BANA board approve the document Chemical Notation Using the Nemeth Code 2023. Jennifer seconded. Motion carried.

FM will contact the committee to let them know of the approval.

MSC: FM moved to charge the Publications Committee to work with the Chemistry Committee to prepare the Chemical Notation Using the Nemeth Code 2023 for publication. Tracy seconded. Motion carried.

MSC: FM moved to charge the Chemistry Committee to work with the Publications Committee to produce the Chemical Notation Using the Nemeth Code 2023 files for the publication process. Tracy seconded. Motion carried.

Tracy reported that at the request of CTEBVI, Cary is willing to give a workshop at their annual conference in April. The board would allow for this presentation of material at the workshop to happen as long as no materials are taken away from the conference. This is in line with our previous decisions on workshops involving the updated Tactile Graphics Guidelines.

MSC: Tracy moved to allow Cary Supalo to conduct a workshop at the CTEBVI conference pertaining to the Chemical Notation Using the Nemeth Code 2023 providing that no handouts are distributed unless the code has already been made available to the public. Kyle seconded. Motion carried. 

There was consensus that a policy should be created around using BANA materials at workshop presentations even when they are not posted for the public.

Tamara and Kyle will work together to draft policy language related to workshop trainings and presentations on BANA materials and will bring a recommendation to the Bylaws Committee by mid-February.

6. Nemeth Code Update: Holly Bullock

Holly reported that the tagging of the accessible PDF document is in process. There is a dedicated staff member at Crawford Technologies working on this project; Holly estimated that the tagging is halfway complete. 

7. Tactile Graphics Update: Mary Nelle McLennan / Jen Goulden

Jen reported that the BRF is almost ready. Aloha Braille is waiting on the index. 

MN reported that, after reviewing the edits they had requested to the base Microsoft Word file, the Tactile Graphics Committee has given Publications the go-ahead to move forward with the remediation of the accessible PDF. 

The board review panel for the Chemical Notation Using the Nemeth Code 2023 recommended that the "Transcription by" line on the title page say the committee name rather than an individual, which is currently the case on the chemistry document. Some of the board felt that the transcribing agency (or individual) should be credited on the title page, as many agencies take pride in working on these documents for BANA. However, as BANA is contracting with individual transcribers and organizations to prepare our publications, we are able to choose the wording on the title page, including the name of the transcriber. It was suggested that this will require a longer discussion and a written policy. However, there is some urgency to make this decision because the Tactile Graphics Guidelines document is nearing the end of the publication process.

Jen proposed that she have a discussion about the wording of this information with the Publications Committee. It   was suggested that more perspectives than those of the Publications Committee should be heard before we create a long-term policy. Given the need to resolve this quickly for the final Tactile Graphics Guidelines files, Jen will discuss this short-term plan for crediting the transcriber of the Tactile Graphics Guidelines with the Publications Committee. 

We will then revisit this issue for a more detailed discussion so that a long-term policy can be made.

8. Graphing Calculator Guidelines: Jen Goulden

Jen has the completed BRF and PDF versions of the updated Graphing Calculator Guidelines. She will soon send this to the General Committee on Unified English Braille for their input.

9. Appointments: Tracy Gaines

Tracy reported that Bill McCann has applied to serve as a member of the Braille Music  Technical Committee. The Appointments Committee has approved his application, and it  has now been turned over to the Braille Music Committee. 

Sarah LaRose has applied to be a member of the General Committee on Languages Other Than English. Her application has been approved by the Appointments Committee and sent to the General committee on Languages Other than English. 

Discussion followed regarding these two first-time committee members. The board agreed that while these two committees are both in need of a chairperson, it is more appropriate to appoint them as members in non-leadership positions to give them a chance to acclimate to their new roles as committee members.  

MSC: TAMARA moved that Bill McCann be appointed to the Music Braille Technical Committee for a term ending in December 2025. FM seconded. Motion carried. 

MSC: Tamara moved that Sarah LaRose be appointed to the General Committee on Languages Other Than English for a term ending in 2025. Tracy seconded. Motion carried.

10. eBRF Working Group Update: Jen Goulden

Jen reported that the work by the DAISY eBRF Working Group is still progressing. Recently, samples of transcriptions with more complex formatting have been submitted to the subgroup focusing on eBRF formats. 

Kyle asked whether Greg Stilson and Willow Freeman should be informed of specific talking points that the board would like to hear about concerning eBRF before our spring meeting. It was suggested that we could have a discussion before the spring meeting and get questions to Greg and Willow in advance.

MN suggested that we may want to discuss the concerns around BANA standards and how they will coexist with the eBRF format.

11. Knit and Crochet Guidelines: Jenifer Dunnam

Jennifer reported that the review panel has submitted a document of requested changes to the Knit and Crochet Committee. The committee is reviewing the changes and will hopefully implement them soon.

12. Spring Meeting: Kyle DeJute

Kyle hopes to have hotel information sent to the board within the next few weeks. As a reminder, meeting dates are March 25-27 with the half day on the 27th.

13. Fall 2024: Diane Spence

Diane did not have any additional updates.  As a reminder, dates are October 26-28 with the half day on the 28th.   

14. Next Meeting: Jen Goulden

Our next meeting will be on January 22, 2024 at 1:00 P.M. Eastern Time. A calendar notice was requested containing the Zoom link. Amber will send this invite to the board.

15. Welcome to Emily Coleman: 

The board welcomed Emily Coleman, representing our Associate member Council of Schools and Services for the Blind. Emily briefly introduced herself; she is the superintendent of the Texas School for the Blind and a TBVI.

16. Adjournment: Jen Goulden

Jen adjourned the meeting at 2:24 P.M. Eastern Time. 

Respectfully submitted,

Amber Pearcy

January 11, 2024