February 2026

Braille Authority of North America Board Meeting 

Monday, February 2, 2026, 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time

 

1. Call to Order: Jen

Jen called the meeting to order at 1:04 P.M. Eastern Time. She began by welcoming the newest BANA member organization, Foundation for Blind Children; the representative, Brian Voeller, introduced himself and his organization. 

Jen notified the board that Aquinas Pather is no longer the BANA representative for Allyant upon his retirement. However, he has agreed to remain on the Tactile Graphics Committee.

2. Roll Call: Amber Pearcy

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
  • Marie Zaldivar, Alternate Text Production Center (ATPC), Treasurer
  • 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 McLennan (MN), Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (AER)
  • Hollie Knight, Center for Inclusive Design and Innovation (CIDI)
  • Tina Seger, Clovernook Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired
  • Brian Voeller, Foundation for Blind Children (FBC)
  • 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

Observer:

  • Callie Brusegaard, U.S. Representative to ICEB

Not attending:

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

3. Approval of Minutes From Last Meeting: Amber Pearcy

Amber reported that the minutes from the December 15, 2025 meeting had been sent to the board to provide multiple opportunities for review of edits and additional feedback.

MSC: Amber moved to approve the minutes from the December 15, 2025 teleconference. Wendy seconded. Motion carried. 

4. Spring Meeting: FM D’Andrea

FM reminded the board that the spring meeting will take place in Pittsburgh from May 10-13. The hotel contract has been signed, and FM will send information to the board about booking rooms. The hotel is three blocks from the university building where the board will meet, and a van will be available if transportation to and from the building is needed.  

5. Happy 50th to BANA!: Jennifer Dunnam

Jennifer reported that the task force has met to plan and discuss ideas. They would like to have the board’s input on a press release celebrating the fiftieth anniversary. They would also like to prepare a brief spotlight for each organization on BANA’s social media outlets. Full and associate members will be highlighted. Highlights could include the mission statement, quotes from members of the organization, and information about the organization’s representative to BANA. Optional additions to the text could be logos, photos, or other multimedia formats. Wendy has put together a template to assist organizations with their posts. After discussion, the board agreed that each organization should submit a photo with their text. Spotlights will be posted for two weeks beginning in mid-February. Even with slight revisions to the schedule, these posts would continue until October, which would leave time to spotlight additional BANA-related accomplishments. Wendy will send the draft of the press release and the spotlight timeline to the board for review. The first organizations on the schedule are CNIB, Perkins, NLS, and ATPC; the remaining organizations will follow in alphabetical order. 

The task force has discussed creating a timeline of BANA historical events. Darleen Bogart has been asked to participate in this project, and the idea of interviewing her for the BANA podcast was also discussed.

The task force would also like the board’s input on the BANA fiftieth anniversary keepsake object. One idea presented was a coin with print and braille engraving. T-shirts and lapel pins were also suggested. The task force has discussed that this will be an item that will be carried or worn rather than a larger statue or plaque. If the item will be given to everyone on the board and everyone on committees, the item will need to be smaller; however, if it is only going to board members and committee chairs, then it could possibly be larger. It is also possible that there could be an item that people outside of BANA could choose to purchase and another item that is provided to the board and committee chairs. It was suggested that offering an object to the braille community at large may be a good way to remind people that BANA still has work to do in the future, while celebrating its past work. It was also suggested that an anniversary keepsake could be given to the leadership of each member organization.

The next meeting of the task force will be February 13 if people have additional thoughts before then, they are encouraged to contact Jennifer.

6. ICEB Update/Midterm Meeting: Callie Brusegaard / Judy Dixon

Callie reported that the mid-term executive meeting announcement is forthcoming. The meeting will occur August 11-15 at the Perkins School for the Blind.

Callie hopes that the updated Section 1.7 of Guidelines for Technical Material will be on the ICEB website soon; a problem was discovered in which a person is not taken to the document after clicking the download link.

The Code Maintenance Committee continues to work on the revision of section 6 of The Rules of Unified English braille 2024.

The Unified English Braille Technical Committee continues to work on the creation of new symbols.

The ICEB Technology Committee is seeking a new chair; James Bowden will be leaving this position due to his appointment as chair of the ICEB Committee on Music Braille.

7. GCUEB: Wendy Buckley

Wendy reported that the committee hopes to have the completed document, Guidance on Transcribing Mathematics and Science in UEB, available by the next meeting for the board’s review.

8. Braille Formats: Hollie Knight

Hollie reported that the committee would like to add a consultant for the purpose of having an additional reviewer of the revised braille formats guidelines document before it goes to the board for review. 

A question was raised about why an outside consultant is necessary. Hollie explained that the committee wants to ensure that the revisions are clear to someone working in the field who is outside of BANA. Many board members feel that this is redundant because of the review process already in place.

The board requested that the committee provide the names of individuals and the expertise they would bring to their review of the document. For example, it may make sense to bring on an expert in copy editing to review the document for errors that could be missed by the committee and/or the board. 

MSC: Jennifer moved that if the committee wishes to ad a consultant to provide an external perspective to the committee, the position should be given to a person with a strong background in language and transcription; the committee should forward such a recommendation to the Appointments Committee for consideration. FM seconded. Motion carried. 

9. Production updates from APH: Kyle DeJute

Kyle reported that the hard copy versions of The Guidelines and Standards for Tactile Graphics 2022 and the tactile graphics supplement will be released in June 2026.

10. Board Orientation: Wendy Buckley

Wendy reported that the draft of the orientation packet for new board members has been sent to the board numerous times, and additional feedback has been received. This feedback needs to be incorporated before a vote can be held.

11. Standardized Tests: Kyle DeJute / FM D’Andrea 

FM reported that the committee continues to meet. She reminded everyone that this committee will hold an in-person meeting after the spring meeting, which will begin on the afternoon of May 13.

13. 3D Printing: Jen Goulden

Jen reported that Samuel Foulkes from Clovernook asked if BANA was interested in forming a committee to offer guidance on 3-D printing as it relates to braille. Brief discussion was held in which the board agreed that the braille should conform to specifications that already exist; furthermore, we agreed that this topic is worth a longer conversation at the spring meeting. We may also need more information from Clovernook about the items that are currently being printed. Tina reported that the quality of braille can vary greatly depending on the 3-D printer being used. Samples from Clovernook would be helpful to aide in our discussion. 

14. Next meeting: Jen Goulden

The next teleconference will be held on March 16, 2026 at 1:00 P.M. Eastern time.

15. Fall 2026: Hollie Knight

Hollie reported that she had sent potential dates for the fall meeting to the board. The consensus was that the meeting will be held on November 4-6 with the half day on November 6.  

16. Adjournment: Jen Goulden

Jen adjourned the meeting at 2:25 P.M. Eastern Time.

Upcoming Meetings:

  • 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

Respectfully submitted,

Amber Pearcy
February 24, 2026