Spring 2025

Tuesday, May 6, 2025, 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Wednesday, May 7, 2025, 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Thursday, May 8, 2025, 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

Hosted by 

Association for the Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (AER)

Meeting Location:

The Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired 

1100 W 45th St, Austin, TX 78756

1. Call to Order: Jen Goulden

Jen called the spring 2025 BANA meeting to order at 9:25 A.M. Central Time.

2. Welcome: Jen Goulden

Jen welcomed board members and observers to the spring 2025 meeting.

3. Welcome from our hosting organization: Lee Sonnenberg, Executive Director of AER and Emily Coleman, Superintendent of TSBVI

Lee and Emily welcomed the BANA board and meeting observers to Austin, Texas. Lee spoke of the importance of BANA’s work to the mission of AER. 

4. Self-Introductions: Representatives and Observers

The following board members were in attendance:

• Jen Goulden, CNIB (Canadian National Institute for the Blind), Chair
• Wendy Buckley, Perkins School for the Blind, Vice Chair
• Amber Pearcy, National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress (NLS), Secretary
• Danette Johnson, Hadley, Treasurer
• Marie Zaldivar, Alternate Text Production Center (ATPC)
• 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)
• Mary Nelle (MN) McLennan, Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (AER)
• Tracy Gaines, California Transcribers and Educators for the Blind and Visually Impaired (CTEBVI)
• Hollie Knight, Center for Inclusive Design and Innovation (CIDI)
• Tina Seger, Clovernook Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired
• Diane Spence, National Braille Association (NBA
• Jennifer Dunnam, National Federation of the Blind (NFB)
• Georgie Sydnor, National Braille Press (NBP)
• Susan (Sue) Reilly, Administrative Assistant
• Emily Coleman, Associate Member Council of Schools and Services for the Blind (COSB)
• Holly Bullock, associate member Crawford Technologies
• Aquinas Pather, associate member Allyant

Not attending:

The following observers were in attendance:

• Callie Brusegaard, U.S. Representative to ICEB
• Susan Osterhaus
• Vivian Seki
• Carri Darby
• Sue O’Brien
• Stacy Fontenot

Jen reminded observers that they would have the chance to comment and ask questions if time permitted.

5. Board's Liability Statement: Amber Pearcy

In her role as board secretary, Amber read the following: BANA indemnifies its Officers and Board of Directors and holds them harmless from all claims of every kind, including court expenses, attorneys' fees, and the claimed amount arising from the performance of their duties as Officers and Directors except for their own acts of dishonesty and gross negligence." (Adopted March 30, 1987) 

6. Agenda Approval: Jen Goulden

Jen asked if anyone had comments or modifications regarding the agenda. No issues were raised. 

MSC: Jennifer moved to approve the agenda for the spring 2025 meeting. Mary Nelle seconded. Motion carried.

7. Approval of Minutes: Amber Pearcy

Amber reported that the minutes from the March 31, 2025 meeting had been sent to the board twice for feedback. She made revisions based on feedback after sending them the first time, and no additional feedback was given after the minutes were sent a second time.

MSC: Amber moved to approve the minutes from the March 31, 2025 BANA meeting. Tracy seconded. Motion carried.

8. Chair's Comments: Jen Goulden

Jen let everyone know that she would make comments as the meeting progressed.

9. Braille Formats Technical Committee: Cindi Laurent

Hollie delivered the report as circulated.

Charge 305: The committee has not received any inquiries recently, but they remain open to answering questions.

Charge 465: The committee has completed their review of Sections 1-3 thus far.  

There was discussion about Section 1.9.3, which currently gives transcribers the option to use blocked paragraphs. The committee would like to remove the option for blocked paragraphs and provided the following reasons:

• Nemeth Code and UEB Technical code requirements do not allow for blocked paragraphs; this would provide consistency among codes.
• Blocked paragraphs can add significant space due to the requirement for blank lines preceding each blocked paragraph.
• There is often confusion about blank lines between directions, transcriber's notes, and even headings when they are followed by a blocked paragraph.
• Eliminating the blocked paragraph in no way changes the understanding of the material being transcribed but it does allow for more consistent handling of the materials with less confusion during transcription.
• Blocking paragraphs is mostly a visual choice rather than a choice that adds meaning or context clues for a reader.

General Consensus: The board would like for the Braille Formats Technical Committee to respond to the following concerns before we make a decision. The concerns are as follows:

• The Guidelines for Technical Material and the Rules of Unified English Braille do not prohibit the use of blocked paragraphs.
• Changing this section of the braille formats guidelines would require significant changes to the examples in the tactile graphics guidelines.
• Transcribers should follow print rather than try to determine the purpose for blocked paragraphs.
• If the committee hopes to eliminate confusion about the blank lines which are required by the format of other material, the  board recommends clarifying the guidelines around the treatment of headings, directions, and transcribers notes when they are followed by blocked paragraphs.
• Until 2016, transcribers never had the option to use blocked paragraphs; can the committee explain their decision to add this in 2016? 

The committee also asked the board if they would approve of a recommendation to divide section 2 into multiple sections; Section 2 would discuss transcriber-generated material, and Section 3 would discuss front matter. The board had no objections to this division.

General Consensus: The board approved the division of section 2 into two new sections.

The committee would like to add a new section to address the formatting of icons. The board requested more information about what this section may include and expressed concern about the creation of additional symbols.

Brief discussion was had about the inclusion of formatting examples related to technical material.

General Consensus: The board would like the examples related to the formatting of technical material scattered throughout the formats guidelines.

The committee would like more guidance on determining when they are making a major change which would need pre-approval from the board. 

General Consensus: The board would prefer to receive more questions and write-ups than less. We would like to know about every rule change, but we do not need to know about every error correction.

The board recognizes that we could slow the work of the committee by asking to pre-approve too many changes.

General Consensus: If the change is one which will require extensive modification to the entire document, then it should be submitted for pre-approval. 

MSC: Hollie moved to change the disposition of Charge 465 from To Be Addressed (TBA) to Ongoing. Kyle seconded. Motion carried.

[Charge 465 (10/26/24): Undertake a full revision of Braille Formats: Principles of Print-to-Braille Transcription, 2016.]

Charge 466: The committee is in communication with the chair of the General Committee on Unified English Braille and will work to incorporate formatting for technical material into the braille formats guidelines as necessary.

MSC: Hollie moved to change the disposition of Charge 466 from TBA to Ongoing. Wendy seconded. Motion carried.

[Charge 466 (10/26/24): Work with the General Committee on Unified English Braille to consider the inclusion of formatting for technical material in the revised formats guidelines.]

Charge 475: The committee is communicating with The Ad Hoc Committee on Standardized Tests to keep them apprised of  formatting changes which may affect the standardized test guidelines.

MSC: Hollie moved to change the disposition of Charge 475 from TBA to Ongoing. Kyle seconded. Motion carried.

[Charge 475 (1/27/25): Keep the Ad Hoc Committee on Standardized Tests apprised of any updates.]

Charge 477: This charge refers to the submission of items for preapproval to the board.

MSC: Hollie moved to change the disposition of Charge 477 from TBA to Ongoing. Mary Nelle seconded. Motion carried.

[Charge 477 (2/24/25): Prepare a document listing items for which they would like preapproval of concept in advance of the full review process. The document should include rationales, samples, and discussion of possible impact of the changes and should be submitted as part of their report for the spring meeting.]

10. Nemeth Code Technical Committee: Dawn Gross

Jennifer delivered the report as circulated.

Charge 366: The committee plans to address the board’s comments concerning the errata to the Graphing Calculator Guidelines during the upcoming term. 

Charge 447: The committee is prepared to answer inquiries as they are received.

Charge 451: Mary Nelle reported that the errata to the Nemeth Braille Code for Mathematics and Science Notation, 2022 will be posted to the website soon.

Jennifer reported that the committee is working on additional errata items to be included in a future errata document.

BRF version of Nemeth Braille Code 2022: Jennifer reported that the problems which were discovered in the BRF files have been corrected. New BRF files will be posted soon.

11. Tactile Graphics Technical Committee: Aquinas Pather

Diane delivered the report as circulated.

Charge 202: A question was received from Disability Access Services at Oregon State University. The detailed answer to this inquiry was included as an attachment to the report. 

The inclusion of this attachment prompted discussion about whether rulings by committee and other answers to inquiries should be posted to the website. There may be a need to differentiate between responses to questions versus rulings by committee.

Kyle reported that there is no update from APH on the timeline for production of the supplement for tactile graphics.

12. Ad Hoc Committee on Chemistry: Cary Supalo 

Frances Mary reported that she has not been in communication with the chemistry committee.

Charge 446: All of the files for the chemistry code are completed and posted to the website.

MSC: FM moved to change the disposition of Charge 446 from TBA to Done. Mary Nelle seconded. Motion carried.

[Charge 446 (10/25/23): Work with the Publications Committee to produce the Chemical Notation Using the Nemeth Code 2023 files for the publication process.]

Charge 459: All of the alt-text examples have been added to the accessible PDF files, and they are posted to the website.

MSC: FM moved to change the disposition of Charge 459 from Ongoing to Done. Jennifer seconded. Motion carried.

[Charge 459 (10/25/23): Provide the alt-text examples of the equations in the document; in the meantime, BANA will post the printable PDF and BRF to the website.]

Charge 468: NO inquiries to the committee regarding the updated chemistry code have been received. 

MSC: FM moved to change the disposition of Charge 468 from TBA to Ongoing. Jennifer seconded. Motion carried.

[Charge 468 (10/26/24): Respond to inquiries regarding the Chemical Notation Using the Nemeth Code 2023.]

Kyle reported that the internal proof of the hard copy of  Chemical Notation Using the Nemeth Code 2023 is complete, which means that the product should be ready for purchase soon. The board would like to post information on the BANA website about purchasing the book once it is available for sale. The suggestion was also made to send out a press release when the hard copy versions of the Nemeth Code for Mathematics and science Notation 2022 and the Guidelines and Standards for Tactile Graphics 2022 and its accompanying supplement are available for purchase from APH.

13. Ad Hoc committee on Standardized Tests: Kyle DeJute

Kyle delivered the report as circulated.

Charge 408: The committee has been meeting weekly to address this charge. They have been drafting general considerations for sections 1 and 2. They are also collecting terms for a glossary which will be part of the final document. 

MSC: FM moved to change the disposition of Charge 408 from TBA to Ongoing. Wendy seconded. Motion carried.

[Charge 408 (5/20/22):  Create a set of guidelines for the transcription of standardized tests in braille. The primary purpose is to address how test items need to be modified so they can be accessed by braille readers, in order to make the assessment as equitable as possible. The secondary purpose is to include some explanation about why specific modifications are needed.]

Charge 476: There is communication with the Formats Committee regarding parts of the standardized tests guidelines document which could be in conflict with the braille formats Guidelines. The committees are sharing revisions to their respective guidelines documents with one another as appropriate.

MSC: FM moved to change the disposition of Charge 476 from TBA to Ongoing. Judy seconded. Motion carried.

[Charge 476 (1/27/25): Communicate with Braille Formats Technical Committee to ensure a lack of conflict between the Braille Formats Guidelines and Standardized Test Guidelines.]

FM reported on a document published online by the National Center on Educational Outcomes which had major inaccuracies about the use of braille for standardized assessments, including the option to continue the use of EBAE. The committee has drafted a position paper which they propose posting on the BANA website and disseminating at the Council of Chief State School Officers National Conference on Student Assessment in late June. Committee member Katherine Padgett reached out to her contacts at the National Center on Educational Outcomes regarding their online publication, and they expressed willingness to make changes to the original document; however, FM is unsure how long it will take for the errors to be corrected. For this reason, the committee would like to act quickly to publish the BANA position paper. 

The board agreed to include all relevant code books and guidelines documents in the references section of the position paper. Several additional modifications which provided more clarity to the position—particularly those sections which discussed the necessity to choose between two math codes and the potential problems associated with this--were agreed to by the board and the committee chairs. 

MSC: Judy moved that the position paper drafted by the Ad Hoc committee on Standardized Tests be approved as amended. Tracy seconded. Motion carried.

14. International Council on English Braille: Callie Brusegaard

Callie delivered the report as circulated.

The ICEB Code Maintenance Committee is working on the creation of a strikethrough symbol, which was a suggestion by BANA’s General Committee on Unified English Braille. They are also working to update the rules about typeform indicators, as well as updating the rules about the use of the numeric mode and the visible space indicator.

The ICEB Technical Committee continues work on the rules pertaining to the use of the grade 1 indicator in technical material. They are also making decisions about symbols which exist in the Nemeth Code but not UEB.

Judy reminded the board that the ICEB midterm meeting will occur from June 22-26, 2026 at the Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, MA.

15. General Committee on Unified English Braille: Wendy Buckley

Charge 272: Only one inquiry has been received recently. The committee remains ready to receive and respond to additional inquiries.

Charge 274: Several members of this committee also serve on ICEB committees. Press releases and other important updates are regularly shared with the BANA board by these members. 

Charge 308: This charge refers to issues which the committee proposed sending to the ICEB Code Maintenance Committee for consideration and/or clarification of the UEB code. Since 2017, the committee has submitted 12 items to the BANA board for consideration and approval before submitting them to the Code Maintenance Committee. As of this writing, five items have been addressed by the Code Maintenance Committee, two are pending, four have not yet been addressed, and one is unknown. The one unknown item on this list was a request to add the words nearabout and nearabouts to the shortforms list. The board agreed not to pursue these additions to the word list.

MSC: Jennifer moved to rescind the decision to submit nearabout and nearabouts to the Code Maintenance Committee. Judy seconded. Motion carried.

Charge 388: UKAAF continues to work on revising their guidance document, and the ICEB Technical Committee is also discussing this document in conjunction with their revisions to the Guidelines for Technical Material. The General committee on UEB is monitoring this progress and will keep the board apprised of any developments. 

Charge 463: The committee is currently working on updates to the document Provisional Guidance for Transcribing Math in UEB. They are communicating with the Braille Formats Technical Committee to exchange details which could impact both documents. Work on Section 5 is stalled while waiting for the ICEB Technical Committee to finalize their revisions to the Guidelines for Technical Materials.

Discussion followed about the need for the ICEB Technical committee to complete the revision to section 1.7 of the Guidelines for Technical Material. Board members were in agreement that there is an urgency to this matter so that transcribers will have more permanent guidance on the transcription of mathematics and science material.

MSC: Kyle moved to instruct the U.S. representative on the ICEB Executive Committee to present the following statement on behalf of the BANA board: It is long past time for BANA to graduate its provisional guidance for transcribing mathematics in UEB to final guidance, but that process is not possible without a vote by the UEB Technical Materials Committee on Section 1.7, Choice and Placement of Grade 1 Indicators, of the Guidelines for Technical Material 2014. We request that a vote be scheduled as soon as possible.   Georgie seconded. Motion carried. 

Charge 464: This charge refers to the process of streamlining the About UEB section of the BANA website, including the archiving and discarding of materials which are not current, as appropriate. The committee submitted a document listing its recommendations, and work is underway by the Digital Assets Committee. 

MSC: Wendy moved to change the disposition of Charge 464 from Ongoing to Done. Georgie seconded. Motion carried.

[Charge 464 (3/25/24): Work with the Digital Assets Committee to streamline the information about UEB on the BANA website, discarding and archiving the documents that are not current, as appropriate.]

MSC: Wendy moved to charge the General Committee on Unified English Braille with monitoring the resources listed on the BANA website under the UEB Information section to keep them current. FM seconded. Motion carried.

Charge 478: This charge refers to the review of position statement terminology UEB Math/Science and UEB with Nemeth for any necessary revisions. Wendy reported that the committee has not begun work on this charge.

MSC: Wendy moved to change the disposition of Charge 478 from TBA to Ongoing. Jennifer seconded. Motion carried.

[Charge 478 (1/24/25): Review the position statement terminology UEB Math/Science and UEB with Nemeth for potential revisions.]

16. Committee on Electronic Braille: Jennifer Dunnam    

Jennifer delivered the report as circulated.

Charge 322: This charge directs the committee to keep the board apprised of any progress and challenges relating to the implementation of Unified English Braille into electronic braille translation software. Jennifer shared that JAWS now has the capability to show italic, underline, and boldface symbols in real-time on a refreshable braille display. This gives some hope that we may see this capability transferred to stand-alone braille displays in the near future.

A problem has been corrected in Liblouis so that numbers separated by spaces are no longer shown under all circumstances to be connected by the numeric space by default.

Charge 426: This charge refers to periodic updates to the status log, which provides public record of problems with specific braille translation software and changes which have resulted in improvements or further difficulties.

Two issues of note from the status log were discussed by the board. The issue of simbraille fonts has been significantly improved by the Duxbury Braille Translator’s incorporation of Unicode glyphs into its simbraille font. This allows a document containing braille to be read with equal ease by both print and braille readers, as the braille reader is no longer required to toggle braille translation on and off.  The hope is that other companies will begin using Unicode glyphs in simbraille fonts.

MSC: Jennifer moved to charge the Electronic Braille Committee to contact ViewPlus, Braille 2000, and other companies that create braille fonts to request that Unicode braille glyphs be added to their braille fonts. Judy seconded. Motion carried. 

The status log mentioned a feature of BrailleBlaster which allowed a user to report a mis-translated word to the developers; this capability is no longer present. Kyle was asked to reach out to those responsible for developing BrailleBlaster at APH to learn more about the status of this software.

MSC: Jennifer moved that the attached document, omitting the portion about the Unicode glyphs, be posted to the BANA website. FM seconded. Motion carried.

MSC: Jennifer moved to change the disposition of Charge 426 from TBA to Ongoing. FM seconded. Motion carried.

[Charge 426 (5/8/23): Ensure that the version of the log on the BANA website is updated when changes are made.]

Charge 454: This charge refers to the collaboration between the General Committee on Electronic Braille Translation and the ICEB Technology Committee to communicate with screen reader and braille device manufacturers to advocate for improvements in braille-to-print and print-to-braille real-time translation.

Members from this committee have attended two meetings of the ICEB Technology Committee since the fall 2024 meeting. One barrier to improvements in print-to-braille translation relates to symbols for which there is no UEB equivalent; one example of this is emojis. This is one area where the ICEB Code Maintenance Committee could assist by developing standard symbols to represent emojis. 

MSC: Jennifer moved to request that the ICEB Code Maintenance Committee devise a method for representing emojis in braille. FM seconded. Motion carried.

Charge 459: The committee has completed the work of developing a document to address confusion by software manufacturers about the term computer braille. This document has been posted to the BANA website.

MSC: Jennifer moved to change the disposition of Charge 459 to Done. FM seconded. Motion carried.

[Charge 459 (3/25/24): Develop a short document to address confusion that manufacturers have about the term computer braille.]

Charge 460: Jennifer reported that DAISY’s development of the new eBraille format is still in progress. A publicly available version of an eBraille file converter can be downloaded, but it is only suitable for testing at this time. The final version of the eBraille specification has not yet been published. 

17. Publications Committee: Mary Nelle McLennan/Jen Goulden

Charge 445: All versions of the document Chemical Notation Using the Nemeth Code 2023 have been posted to the BANA website.

MSC: Mary Nelle moved to change the disposition of Charge 445 to Done. Tracy seconded. Motion carried.

[Charge 445 (12/18/23): Work with the Chemistry Committee to prepare the Chemical Notation Using the Nemeth Code 2023 for publication.]

Charge 457: The process of preparing and posting the errata to the Nemeth Braille Code 2022 is almost complete. 

MSC: Mary Nelle moved to change the disposition of Charge 457 from TBA to Done. Tracy seconded. Motion carried.

[Charge 457 (3/24/24): Work with the Nemeth Code Technical Committee to prepare the errata to the Nemeth Braille Code for Mathematics and Science Notation, 2022 and post it to the BANA website.]

Charge 469: Updates to the authoring guidelines are in progress. The current list of technical specifications and existing items of concern has been gathered. Input and considerations from board members and technical committees is encouraged.

MSC: Mary Nelle moved to change the disposition of Charge 469 from TBA to Ongoing. FM seconded. Motion carried.

[Charge 469 (10/26/24): Update BANA’s authoring guidelines.] 

18. BANA Digital assets Committee: Sue Reilly

Sue delivered the report as circulated.

Charge 411: Documentation about maintaining and updating website content, as well as maintaining MailChimp, is in progress. 

There are software updates related to the maintenance of the website that need to be completed. However, this will require outside expertise; BANA is seeking a quote for this assistance.

Charge 412: This charge refers to the continual work to update the website, BANA directory, BANA Dropbox folders, and BANA listservs. Tina and Sue have been working together on this process; they are currently working on publishing archived minutes to the website. 

Charge 413: A process for updating  the website has been developed in conjunction with the Publications Committee.

MSC: FM moved to change the disposition of Charge 413 from Ongoing to Done. Tina seconded. Motion carried.

[Charge 413 (11/14/22): Work with the Publications Committee to develop the process for web updates.]

The committee requests a new charge to address the  non-technical website hierarchy and content.

MSC: Jennifer moved to charge the General Committee on Digital Assets to collaborate with the Publications Committee as needed on non-technical website hierarchy and content. FM seconded. Motion carried.

Charge 435: This charge relates to changing all of BANA’s email communications to one platform. Some exploration was done into moving the webform communications to Mailchimp; however, questions for committees cannot be forwarded to individual committees. The Digital Assets Committee has determined that this is not a charge which should be pursued further at this time.

MSC: Jennifer moved to change the disposition of Charge 435 from Ongoing to Done. Georgie seconded. Motion carried.

[Charge 435 (10/25/23): Consider consolidating all email lists onto one platform.]

Sue addressed the problem of inquiries not reaching the committees for which they were intended; some committees receive questions while others do not. The short-term solution at this time is that all inquiries to committees are going to Sue, who forwards them to the appropriate committee. This will hopefully change when the website software is updated. 

MSC: Jennifer moved to charge the General Committee on Digital Assets to research the best options for optimizing BANA's email communications. Georgie seconded. Motion carried.

Charge 436: The Digital Assets Committee and the Awards committee have collaborated to post information about the BANA Braille Excellence Award and past honorees on the About BANA page.

MSC: FM moved to change the disposition of Charge 436 from Ongoing to Done. Georgie seconded. Motion carried.

[Charge 436 (10/25/23): Work with the Awards Committee to put information about the BANA Braille Excellence Awards on the BANA website.]

Charge 472: This was the charge which tasked the Awards Committee to assist the Digital Assets Committee in populating the website with the Braille Excellence Award information.

MSC: FM moved to change the disposition of Charge 472 from TBA to Done. Jennifer seconded. Motion carried.

[Charge 472 (10/26/24): Work with the Digital Assets Committee to develop and populate a BANA Awards section on the website.]

Charge 437: This charge refers to the work done on the Historical Documents section of the website. This section will now be entitled Documents of Historical Interest, and it will include a subsection for Archived codes. No work has started on the addition of this subsection.

MSC: Jennifer moved to change the disposition of Charge 437 from TBA to Ongoing. FM seconded. Motion carried.

[Charge 437 (10/25/23): Work with Darleen Bogart and Jennifer Dunnam to design an archive code section of the website.]

Charge 458: This charge refers to recommendations made by the General Committee on UEB regarding the BANA website. The UEB page has been updated, and certain materials were archived or discarded. It was agreed that updates to the Resources for Purchase page can be incorporated into this charge.

MSC:FM moved that the disposition of Charge 458 from TBA to Ongoing. Wendy seconded. Motion carried.

[Charge 458 (3/24/24): Create new sections of the website and to make other changes as needed in order to implement requests submitted by committees.]

19. General Committee on Languages Other than English: Jen Goulden

Charge 415: No inquiries for the committee have been received.

Discussion was had about the World Braille Usage 2013 document; specifically, concerns were raised that this document continues to remain out-of-date with no updates planned. It was mentioned that this could possibly be a project for the World Braille Council; however, funding and manpower remain barriers. 

MSC: Jennifer moved to charge the General Committee on Languages Other Than English to monitor developments in the World Braille Usage 2013 document. Judy seconded. Motion carried.

The board discussed the growing needs of transcribers who are looking for more guidance on transcribing education materials in languages other than English. Given the wide range of transcriptions and languages, many board members felt that it would be difficult for this committee to revise the Guidelines for Transcription of Languages Other than English to cover a wide scope of needs.

This discussion raised questions about how the BANA board receives feedback from those working in the field. This is a discussion which must continue in the future.

20. General Committee for Review Process: Kyle DeJute

Charge 302: No documents are awaiting review/approval at this time. The committee is aware that there are several forthcoming documents which will need to be reviewed in the future, including:

• Braille Formats – BANA’s Braille Formats Technical Committee is working on updating this approximately-700-print-page document

• guidelines for standardized tests – BANA’s Ad Hoc Committee on Standardized Tests is creating this document

• Provisional Guidance for Transcribing Mathematics in UEB – BANA’s GC UEB is working on a new version of this eight-print-page document

• position statement “Terminology: UEB Math/Science and UEB with Nemeth” – BANA’s GC UEB is discussing this three-print-page document

Discussion followed which clarified that this committee is meant to work on documents which are more complex in nature. When the workflow for the document publication process is reviewed, this may be an opportunity to examine the tasks of the Review Process Committee. 

21. Bylaws Committee: Jennifer Dunnam

Charge 434: This charge relates to the provisions of committee co-chairs. The committee proposed amending Section 6.0 so that co-chairs may be appointed by the BANA chair for general and ad hoc committees. 

MSC: Jennifer moved to approve the amendment set forth in Charge 434. Judy seconded. Motion carried.

MSC: Jennifer moved to change the disposition of Charge 434 from TBA to Done. Kyle seconded. Motion carried.

[Charge 434 (10/25/23): Consider the provisions around co-chairs for committees.]

Charge 439: This charge relates to the timing of press releases which announce upcoming meetings, as well as when observers must notify the BANA chair of their plans to attend an upcoming meeting. The committee recommended adding Section 6.1.4 to the policies, which says that press releases announcing upcoming meetings should be disseminated no more than three weeks before a face-to-face meeting so that observers have ample time to prepare and notify the BANA chair. Press releases announcing outcomes of face-to-face meetings shall be issued no later than three weeks after a face-to-face meeting. 

MSC: Jennifer moved to approve the addition of Section 6.1.4 to the BANA Policies. Kyle seconded. Motion carried.

MSC: Jennifer moved to change the disposition of Charge 439 from TBA to Done.

[Charge 439 (10/25/23): Consider the timing of distribution of press releases related to meetings; and observer attendance notification to the chair.]

Charge 443: This charge relates to the awarding of certificates of appreciation to outgoing committee chairs who remain on committees. The Bylaws committee proposed changing the current Section 6.8 to 6.9 and creating a new Section 6.8. The new Section 6.8 says that an outgoing committee chair shall receive a certificate of appreciation and a letter from the BANA chair upon the completion of their tenure as chair, regardless of whether they remain on the committee. 

MSC: Jennifer moved to approve the creation of the new Section 6.8 and its addition to the Policies document. Judy seconded. Motion carried.

MSC: Jennifer moved to change the disposition of Charge 443 from TBA to Done. Georgie seconded. Motion carried.

[Charge 443 (10/25/23): Consider whether or not to award certificates of appreciation for outgoing committee chairs who remain on committees.]

Charge 470: This charge asked the committee to recommend when the Appointments Committee should review appointments. The current bylaws do not mention the Appointments committee. The committee recommended a revision to section 5.2.1 of the BANA Policies document by adding Section 5.2.1.1. This new section states that all members of technical, ad hoc, and general committees who are not board members must go through the appointments process, which may result in recommendation for committee membership to be approved by the BANA board. The new section clarifies that the appointments process does not apply to  board committees or task forces; furthermore, if a new committee chair is recommended from among the existing committee members, they are not required to go through the appointments process. Additionally, if an individual is recommended for membership on a general, ad hoc, or technical committee who has previously served on the BANA board or on other BANA committees, they may undergo an expedited appointments process.

Clarification was given that consultants on any committee do not need to go through the appointments process, and this was recommended as an addition to Section 5.2.1.1.

Jennifer put forth a motion to approve the revision of Section 5.2.1, including the amendment clarifying that consultants do not go through the appointments process. Discussion on the motion followed. A question was raised about the expedited appointment process. Expedited appointment would include asking if the recommended member already has a relationship with BANA. If so, they will not be asked to complete the form. This would include service on a different committee for which they are being examined for appointment.

MSC: Jennifer moved to approve the revisions set forth in Charge 470 including the amendment regarding consultants. Judy seconded. Motion carried.

MSC: Jennifer moved to change the disposition of Charge 470 from TBA to Done.

[Charge 470 (10/26/23): Make a recommendation of when it is necessary for the Appointments Committee to review appointments.]

Jennifer reported on additional discussion had by the Bylaws Committee relating to expedited appointments. The question of how the Notice of Consideration would be changed to accommodate the appointment of individuals who already have a relationship with BANA was raised by the board. It was agreed that a slightly different notice would be appropriate under this circumstance; furthermore, based on the suggestion of the Bylaws Committee, a question could be added to the Appointment Status Composition form so that the committee chair could indicate whether or not the appointee has a relationship with BANA. 

Jennifer reported on discussion had by the Bylaws Committee about the adjustment of timing of requests for appointment of new members by committees. The committee recommended shortening the time between committee appointment requests and the fall meeting from the current 60 days. The committee recommended strengthening the connection between the committee reports and the submission of appointment requests. Committee liaisons can help facilitate this process by reminding committee chairs about their upcoming reports and appointments requests in August or September, encouraging the chairs to submit their appointments requests before or in conjunction with their committee report. Additionally, the Bylaws Committee recommends adding a checkbox to the report template so that the chair may specify whether or not a request has been submitted via the request form. A link to the status composition form should also be added to the template. BANA-L and the Appointments Committee will receive these requests. If there is not enough time between the submission of am appointment request and the fall meeting, the Bylaws committee proposed that appointments may be considered at the December teleconference.

MSC: Jennifer moved to charge the Bylaws Committee to add the recommendations regarding adjusted timing of appointments requests and considerations to the BANA Policies. Tracy seconded. Motion carried.

Charge 473: This incorporates the Darleen Bogart Braille Excellence Award criteria, distributed at the Fall 2024 meeting, into the BANA Policies. These criteria now appear as Appendix I.

MSC: Jennifer moved to change the disposition of Charge 473 from TBA to Done. Tracy seconded. Motion carried.

[Charge 473 (10/26/24): Incorporate the Braille Excellence Award criteria into the BANA Policies.]

Charge 438: This charge relates to the transfer of charges from one committee to another, as well as the mechanisms in place for tracking the status of charges which are not documented. The committee added an Appendix J to the policies document which outlines many of the duties already performed by the Administrative Assistant. Therefore, the committee recommended adding a reference to Appendix J in Appendix G, which outlines the duties of the Administrative Assistant. 

The tracking spreadsheet will be modified so that the letter R is placed  before the Discarded disposition of an old charge which is being reassigned to a new committee. The letter R will also be placed before the disposition of the newly-assigned charge to keep track of the reassignment.  The new charge will also carry a reference to the old charge (“See charge ___).

MSC: Jennifer moved to approve the addition of Appendix J to the BANA Policies. Georgie seconded. Motion carried.

MSC: Jennifer moved to change the disposition of Charge 438 from TBA to Done. FM seconded. Motion carried.

[Charge 438 (10/25/23): Consider a new category and procedure for the status of charges that need to transfer from one committee to another.]

General Consensus: The board would like to thank Tamara Rorie for her service on the Bylaws Committee.

The side notes recommended by the Bylaws Committee will be addressed at the fall meeting. These refer to reinstating a more formalized orientation for new board members, as well as a discussion on expectations and policies for the use of the BANA-Tech listserv. 

Georgie agreed to review the current documents used for orientation of new board members and make recommendations.

22. Ad Hoc Committee on Braille Signage and Labeling: Kim Charlson 

Charge 259: Kim and Jen continue to answer questions regarding braille signage. 

Charge 346: This charge pertains to the review of ICC A117.1 American National Standard to determine whether this architectural code requires changes to comply with UEB. Kim does not believe that this charge is appropriate to the committee. No one currently serving on the committee has the expertise or the contacts to reopen this issue.

While the resources may not be available to address this charge in the near future, the BANA board believe that the issue of erroneous and poorly translated braille signage remains one which must be kept at the forefront. It was pointed out that many companies creating signs are using brailletranslator.org for the translation of their signs, resulting in poor quality. Jen and Judy will contact brailletranslator.org on behalf of BANA and ICEB to let them know about the issues occurring on their website.

MSC: Judy moved to change the disposition of Charge 346 from Ongoing to TBA. Wendy seconded. Motion carried.

[Charge 346 (11/1/18): Review the ICC A117.1 Standard, American National Standard, to determine if this architectural code needs to be changed to comply with Unified English Braille.]

Charge 416: This concerns the update of the Size and Spacing of Braille Characters position paper so that it reflects updated standards, titles, and numbers within the braille signage guidelines. The committee recommended discarding this charge and focusing only on responding to inquiries. However, given the board’s concerns about the poor quality of braille signage, the board does not agree. Judy believes that the only information which remains out of date is the section which lists contacts for resources; she has agreed to make the updates to this document so that the contact info for the organizations referenced is up-to-date. This will be completed by the fall meeting. 

General Consensus: The charge will remain TBA, and Judy will complete the update by the fall.

Sue reported that there is an old, outdated version of the signage document on the internet, which must be removed. Kyle raised the question as to whether there are more old documents which still exist on the internet from the previous BANA website. Jennifer will look into this.

MSC: Judy moved to charge the General Committee on Digital Assets to investigate the existence of out-of-date documents which can still be retrieved from the Internet and to remove them. Mary Nelle seconded. Motion carried.

The recommendation was made that the signage committee be disbanded for the time being. 

General Consensus: This committee will remain intact for now, but the committee may be disbanded once Charge 416 is completed in the fall. A decision will be made in the fall about whether the committee should be disbanded or reconstituted.

23. Discussion of BANA Priorities: Jen Goulden

The group of board members who agreed to discuss BANA’s strategic priorities has not met since agreeing to do so at the fall 2024 meeting. The suggestion was made to form a task force to bring a recommendation to the board at the fall 2025 meeting.

The two imperatives borne out of the strategic planning sessions were based on the goals of producing BANA publications in a timely manner and clarifying the confusion around UEB math/science and UEB with Nemeth. The question was raised as to whether the two imperatives remain valid.

Board discussion revealed that there is still confusion by parents, teachers, and test publishers about which code should be used for technical material, which illustrates the necessity for continued guidance. It was acknowledged that BANA, through the work of the Ad Hoc committee on Standardized Test and the General committee on Unified English Braille, will provide more information to the field on this issue. BANA’s revision of the Nemeth Code has occurred, and BANA is encouraging the ICEB Technical Materials Committee to act more quickly on the revisions to the Guidelines for Technical Materials 2014. The Guidelines for Tactile Graphics were updated to facilitate the creation of graphics using both technical codes. Board members agreed that BANA may be able to provide additional guidance and resources. The suggestion was made to compile a list of guidance documents illustrating how various states are working with the two codes. It may also be worthwhile to reiterate that BANA supports the ability of students, guardians, and educators to decide which code is right for individual students.

It was agreed that timely updating of codes and guidelines is also still a valid consideration, even though BANA is working to adjust and streamline processes surrounding the publication of documents.

General Consensus: Jen, Mary Nelle, Holly, and Amber will meet before the fall to review the strategic planning documents and the status of the strategic imperatives.

This group will bring recommendations to the board in the fall.

24. Music Braille Technical Committee: Jenny Wheeler

Charge 281:The committee continues to respond to inquiries about the Music Braille Code.

Charge 467: The committee is actively monitoring international initiatives relating to Music Braille. The most recent event was a roundtable on teaching Music Braille convened by the DAISY Consortium and RNIB. Hollie attended the presentation and brought a report back to the committee.

MSC: Hollie moved to change the disposition of Charge 467 from TBA to Ongoing. FM seconded. Motion carried.

[Charge 467 (10/26/24): Monitor the international initiatives regarding Music Braille, including the work being done by the ICEB Music Braille committee and to keep the BANA board informed as necessary.]

25. Outreach Committee: Marie Zaldivar

Charge 168: The committee is prepared to assist with the distribution of the position paper authored by the Ad Hoc Committee on Standardized Tests once it is available.

Charge 382: BANA’s most active social media presence is on Facebook, where we have approximately 3,000 followers. Other statistics include: LinkedIn: 80 followers; X: 387 followers.

FM will research the feasibility of creating a BANA account on Blue Sky. 

Concern was raised about the fact that BANA's social media efforts are not coordinated. The board agreed that posts should be the same across all platforms. Sue will share credentials for all of the social media platforms with Marie. Marie will help to ensure that BANA’s social media presence is consistent across platforms; furthermore, the committee will examine engagement across BANA’s social media platforms.

Charge 357: The latest podcast, released this spring, focused on celebrations in the United Kingdom to celebrate the 200^thanniversary of the invention of braille. 

26. International Initiatives:

Judy reported that Kim Charlson is resigning from her position as chair of the World Braille Council. 

The World Braille Summit will be held at the General Assembly of the World Blind Union this September in Brazil.

The Tactile Reading and Graphics Conference will occur this June in Amsterdam.

The International Council on English Braille is working on a reissue of the IPA codebook. There will be some differences in the presentation but not in the content. The use of swell paper to produce the code has proven to be an obstacle to linguistic students.

Several other international conferences were listed by Callie.

27. Secretary’s Report: Amber Pearcy

Amber reported that as of this meeting, there have been no email votes taken by the board.

28. Treasurer’s Report: Danette Johnson

Danette reported on the research that she has done regarding a high-interest savings account. Chase Bank has a 4% option on a 4-month CD. BANA currently has $100,000 available in savings that could potentially be transferred to a CD of this kind. The board was in agreement that this money should be put into the 4-month CD, which will allow Danette additional time to conduct more research.

MSC: Danette moved that BANA should invest $100,000 in a 4-month CD earning 4% interest and that the treasurer should investigate additional investment options. FM seconded. Motion carried.

Danette delivered the report on the budget as circulated.

MSC: Jennifer moved to accept the treasurer's report as submitted. Tina seconded. Motion carried. 

29. Directory Update: Sue Reilly

Sue reported that she has prepared a draft of an updated directory to send to the board. She also has an Excel spreadsheet with contact information pulled from the directory to send to the board. She asked that board members send any necessary directory updates to her as soon as possible.

A question was raised regarding the dates of the terms for each board member which are currently included on the directory. Currently, organizations receive notification when terms of representatives expire. There was discussion about whether there should be term limits for BANA representatives, and most board members agreed that term limits are unnecessary.

MSC: Jennifer moved to charge the Bylaws Committee to work to eliminate term limits for board members. Judy seconded. Motion carried.

Danette noted that Horizons for the Blind, who is still an associate member, does not currently have a representative.

30. BANA’s Listservs: Sue Reilly

Sue reported that she has sent invitations updating everyone's membership on certain BANA listservs. 

31. Certificates of Appreciation: Mary Nelle McLennan

Longtime board members Diane Spence, Jennifer Dunnam, Frances Mary D'Andrea were presented with certificates to acknowledge their work as chairs of various committees throughout the years.

32. BANA’s Archives: Frances Mary D’Andrea 

FM reported that she continues to collect minutes from past meetings. 

33. BANA Awards: Frances Mary D’Andrea

FM reported that information about the BANA Braille Excellence Award has been added to the website.

MSC: FM moved to change the disposition of Charge 471 from TBA to Done. Kyle seconded. Motion carried.

[Charge 471: (10/25/24): Work with the Digital Assets Committee to develop and populate a BANA Awards section on the website.]

FM will convene the Awards Committee this summer to begin soliciting nominations so that the Braille Excellence Award may be presented at the Getting in Touch with Literacy conference in Huntsville, Alabama this November.

34. Press Releases: Wendy Buckley

Wendy reported that there will be a press release ready for review during the week following this meeting. Items in the press release will include: Approval of a position paper on standardized tests;

• Welcome of a new board member representing NBP;

• Welcome to all observers who attended this meeting;

• Announcement of the fall 2025 meeting in Boston;

• Bid farewell to Tamara and welcom Amber Pearcy in her new role as NLS representative;

Additional press releases will provide the following information: 

• Announce the availability of the hard copy versions of the Tactile Graphics supplement, Chemistry Code, and Nemeth Code;

• Provide a Summary of current issues related to electronic braille; 

• Announce the posting of the position paper on standardized tests

35. Unfinished/Continued Business:

35.1: Braille Formats and Icons

The updated section of the braille formats  guidelines related to icons discusses the placement of icons rather than the creation of new symbols. The board would like to clarify to the committee that they should limit the discussion to icons rather than emojis in this section.

35.2: Inquiries to Committees

Discussion continued on the need to differentiate questions to committees and their subsequent answers from rulings by committee. Rulings by committee are more formalized and are often included in errata documents. A conversation was had at a past meeting about posting questions and answers, but the board does not feel that publicizing these questions and answers is the right approach. A few questions were raised in thinking about how to share questions and answers:

• Is it important to share more lengthy questions and responses?

• What criteria determine when a question and answer exchange should be made public? 

• Should an exchange be posted when the same question is asked repeatedly or when a concept appears to be repeatedly misunderstood? 

Several additional ideas were discussed. Perhaps there should be a document containing all questions and answers in each committee's Dropbox folder so that the board has it as a resource. 

Committee chairs know best which questions are asked frequently, which makes it inappropriate for the board to decide which questions and answers should be publicized.

The board agreed that a revision to the definition of a ruling by committee is necessary.

Jennifer put forth a motion that the Bylaws Committee should consider clarifying the meaning of a ruling by committee. Discussion of the motion followed. Board members clarified that this charge should be considered separate from the recommendation to post responses to questions and answers on the website.

MSC: Jennifer moved to charge the bylaws committee to consider a clarification to the definition of rulings by committee. Judy seconded. Motion carried.

The suggestion was made to create a task force to discuss the issue of questions and answers to committees.

MSC: Kyle moved to create a task force to make a recommendation of BANA's policy regarding the archiving and distribution of questions submitted to BANA committees. Georgie seconded. Motion carried.

The task force will be called Task Force on Questions to Committees. Jen appointed Kyle as chair of the task force. Jen appointed Georgie Sydnor, Jennifer Dunnam, and Diane Spence to the task force.

35.3: Music Braille

Jen cannot locate the source files for the 2015 Music Braille Code. Jenny Wheeler was willing to produce this in uncontracted braille if the files were located. Judy and Jen will work together to locate the source files.

36. New Business:

Following up on a request from board members on the first day of the meeting, Kyle provided a report on the current status of BrailleBlaster. The software is now open source. There was agreement that if BANA envisions this product as one which should be further developed, it would be helpful to communicate this to APH, as it may lead to additional development; ICEB and BANA could both benefit from continued development of BrailleBlaster. The suggestion was made that it could also be helpful for a consumer organization to advocate to APH.

MSC: Judy moved that the BANA board should direct the BANA chair to communicate to APH the importance of BrailleBlaster as a viable, free braille translation package available throughout the world. Georgie seconded. Motion carried.

37. Upcoming Zoom Meetings:

Our next teleconference will be held on June 23, 2025, at 1:00 P.M. Eastern Time.

38. Fall 2025 Meeting: NBP

Georgie will send updates to the board about the fall 2025 meeting as they are available.

39. Future Spring and Fall Meetings:

• Spring 2026: AFB
  • Fall 2026: CIDI
  • Spring 2027: CTEBVI
  • Fall 2027: Hadley
  • Spring 2028: ATPC
  • Fall 2028: ACB
  • Spring 2029: CNIB
  • Fall 2029: Clovernook
  • Spring 2030: NFB
  • Fall 2030: NLS
  • Spring 2031: Perkins
  • Fall 2031: NBA

  • Spring 2032: APH

40. Around the Table:

Members provided brief updates about the activities of their organizations.

41. Adjournment: Jen Goulden

Jen thanked all of the member organizations for their attendance and support. She also thanked AER and the Texas School for the Blind and visually Impaired for serving as host.

Jen adjourned the meeting at 11:35 A.M. Central Time.                 

Respectfully submitted,

Amber Pearcy 

June 5, 2025