Press Release
September 2013
For Immediate Release
CONTACT: Frances Mary D'Andrea, Chair
Braille Authority of North America
Phone: 412-521-5797
Email: literacy2@mindspring.com
BANA Welcomes Two New Member Organizations and Four New Board Members The Braille Authority of North America (BANA) is pleased to announce that two additional organizations—COSB (Council of Schools and Services for the Blind) and the Hadley School for the Blind—have become full members of BANA. In the months before BANA's April Board meeting, these two prestigious organizations submitted their applications for membership in BANA. After reviewing the extensive applications, the BANA Board approved full membership for both COSB and Hadley and welcomed them into the organization. These two new member organizations have named their representatives — Dr. Stuart Wittenstein, Superintendent of the California School for the Blind, now serves as the BANA representative from COSB, and Ruth Rozen, who designs and writes many of Hadley's courses, represents the Hadley School for the Blind.
Two other new Board members were recently named by their respective organizations. Diane Spence of Houston, Texas, replaces Cindi Laurent as the representative from the National Braille Association, and Jeff Baugher assumes the role of representative from ATPC (Alternate Text Production Center of the California Community Colleges) following the retirement of Sandy Greenberg, who had served as their representative. BANA looks forward to working with all four new Board members as they participate in their first Board meeting this fall. BANA meets face-to-face semiannually and will hold its fall meeting on November 8—10, 2013, in Louisville, KY. This meeting will be hosted by the American Printing House for the Blind (APH), a BANA member organization. More information about the fall Board meeting will be distributed in the next few weeks.
For additional resource information, visit www.brailleauthority.org
The Board of BANA consists of appointed representatives from seventeen member organizations of braille producers, transcribers, teachers, and consumers.
The mission of the Braille Authority of North America is to assure literacy for tactile readers through the standardization of braille and/or tactile graphics.
The purpose of BANA is to promote and to facilitate the uses, teaching, and production of braille. Pursuant to this purpose, BANA will promulgate rules, make interpretations, and render opinions pertaining to braille codes and guidelines for the provisions of literary and technical materials and related forms and formats of embossed materials now in existence or to be developed in the future for the use of blind persons in North America. When appropriate, BANA shall accomplish these activities in international collaboration with countries using English braille. In exercising its function and authority, BANA shall consider the effects of its decisions on other existing braille codes and guidelines, forms and formats; ease of production by various methods; and acceptability to readers.