Braille Authority of North America: Spring 2024
Monday, March 25, 2024, 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Tuesday, March 26, 2024, 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Wednesday, March 27, 2024, 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Hosted by American Printing House for the Blind
1839 Frankfort Ave, Louisville, KY 40206.
1. Call to Order: Jen Goulden
Jen called the meeting to order at 9:10 A.M. Eastern Time.
2. Welcome: Jen Goulden
Jen welcomed board members and observers.
3. Welcome from our hosting organization: Craig Meador, President
Craig welcomed us all to the American Printing House for the Blind (APH) and expressed his appreciation for the work and passion of BANA.
4. Self-Introductions: Representatives and Observers
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, 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)
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)
Wendy Buckley, Perkins School for the Blind
Susan (Sue) Reilly, Administrative Assistant
Emily Coleman, Associate Member Council of Schools and Services for the Blind (COSB)
Holly Bullock, associate member Crawford Technologies
The following board members did not attend:
Tamara Rorie, National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress (NLS), Immediate Past Chair
- Tracy Gaines, California Transcribers for the Blind and visually Impaired (CTEBVI)
- Aquinas Pather, associate member Allyant
The following observers were present:
Rachel Bishop, APH
Rachel Musser, APH
Katherine Padgett, APH
Karen Pope, APH
5. Board's Liability Statement: Amber Pearcy
In her role as BANA board secretary, Amber read the following statement:
BANA indeMary Nelleifies 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 for comments about the agenda. There were no comments or concerns.
MSC: Kyle moved to approve the meeting agenda. Mary Nelle seconded. Motion carried.
7. Chair's Comments: Jen Goulden
Jen reminded us that she would make her comments throughout the meeting.
8. Approval of Minutes: Amber Pearcy
Amber asked for any additional comments about the February 26 teleconference minutes. There were no additional comments or concerns.
MSC: Amber moved to approve the minutes from the February 26 teleconference. Diane seconded. Motion carried.
9. Braille Formats Technical Committee: Cindi Laurent
Hollie delivered the report as submitted.
Included with the report were two documents: a Rulings by Committee and an Errata to Braille Formats: Principles of Print-to-Braille Transcription, 2016. Discussion was had about both documents.
There were no concerns expressed about the submitted errata document.
MSC: Jennifer moved that the errata to Braille Formats: Principles of Print-to-Braille Transcription, 2016 be approved. Kyle seconded. Motion carried.
MSC: Kyle moved to charge the Braille Formats Technical Committee to work with the Publications Committee to prepare the errata for Braille Formats: Principles of Print-to-Braille Transcription, 2016 and to post it to the BANA website. Diane seconded. Motion carried.
Rulings by Committee document: There is concern that this document goes beyond clarifications by the committee and is more of a change to the Formats guidelines. Agreement was reached that we would feel more comfortable calling this document an update rather than a ruling because the content provides additional clarifications and interpretations. Therefore, we would like to add a paragraph at the beginning of the document stating that these are updates.
MSC: Jennifer moved to approve the document originally titled Rulings by Committee submitted by the Braille Formats Technical Committee with the following changes: 1) Change the title of the document to Braille Formats: Principles of Print-to-Braille Transcription 2016, March 2024 Updates; and 2) an introductory sentence to explain the document will be added. The additional sentence is "These updates are intended to clarify existing guidelines in Braille Formats: Principles of Print-to-Braille Transcription, 2016." Wendy seconded. Motion carried.
MSC: Kyle moved to charge the Braille Formats Technical Committee to work with the Publications Committee to prepare the document Braille Formats: Principles of Print-to-Braille Transcription 2016, March 2024 Updates and post it to the BANA website. Amber seconded. Motion carried.
This document can be put in the section on the website relating to Updates. We will include the statement explaining the document on the website.
MSC: Hollie moved to change the disposition of Charge 344 to done. FM seconded. Motion carried.
[Charge 344 11/1/18 Develop an errata for Braille Formats: Principles of Print-to-Braille Transcription, 2016 to correct errors in the document.]
Charge 345: There is agreement that the document Braille Formats: Principles of Print-to-Braille Transcription 2016, March 2024 Updates has dealt with many of the clarifications presented by the committee to the Formats Task Force; however, the task force has not dealt with the category of items that are considered changes.
General Consensus: Jen will work with Hollie and Cindi to provide an update to the Formats Task Force regarding further changes that the committee is hoping to make to the formats guidelines.
10. Nemeth Technical Committee: Dorothy Worthington
Jennifer delivered the report as submitted.
We received both an errata attachment and an adjusted Rule 9.4 attachment. Discussion was had regarding both.
MSC: Jennifer moved to change the disposition of Charge 447 to Ongoing. FM seconded. Motion carried.
[Charge 447 10/25/23 Charge the Nemeth Committee to respond to inquiries regarding the Nemeth Braille Code for Mathematics and Science Notation, 2022.]
Adjusted Rule 9.4: Discussion was had about whether this adjustment is clear enough in the explanation provided about the way that the checkmark should be treated. It was initially felt that the explanation was sufficient.
MSC: Jennifer moved to charge the Nemeth Code Technical Committee to work with the Publication Committee to prepare the adjusted 9.4 update to the Nemeth Braille Code for Mathematics and Science Notation, 2022 and post it to the BANA website. FM seconded. Motion carried.
However, after this motion carried, additional concerns were raised, and the board agreed that this adjusted rule does not go far enough in explaining when the UEB symbol should be used versus a Nemeth symbol.
MSC: Jennifer moved to rescind the previous motion regarding the adjustment to Rule 9.4. FM seconded. Motion carried.
General Consensus: Jennifer will work with the Nemeth Code Technical Committee to craft an additional sentence within this rule to prevent confusion about when to use the UEB checkmark.
Nemeth Braille Code for Mathematics and Science Notation, 2022 Errata: The board did not have any concerns about the errata to the Nemeth Braille Code for Mathematics and Science Notation, 2022 document.
MSC: Jennifer moved to approve the errata to the Nemeth Braille Code for Mathematics and Science Notation, 2022 document. Diane seconded. Motion carried.
MSC: Jennifer moved to charge the Nemeth Code Technical Committee to work with Publications Committee to prepare the errata to the Nemeth Braille Code for Mathematics and Science Notation, 2022 and post it to the BANA website. Kyle seconded. Motion carried.
MSC: Jennifer moved to change the disposition of Charge 423 to done. FM seconded. Motion carried.
[Charge 423 5/8/23 Prepare an errata to the Nemeth Code 2022 to be submitted upon the completion of the final document.]
11. Tactile Graphics Technical Committee: Aquinas Pather
Diane delivered the report as submitted.
We received an attachment of a Ruling by Committee, which we discussed.
Ruling by Committee: The board did not have concerns with the portion of the ruling that was recommended for posting to the website. The point was raised that, as this is a true ruling by committee, we need to develop a process to make these rulings available to the public.
It was suggested that in this case, we add a "Rulings by Committee" section to address the questions that were answered.
Jen reported that the BRF of the Guidelines and Standards for Tactile Graphics, 2022 is ready. There were a few errors in the graphics, and those will be corrected by Betty Marshall, as these were associated with the JPEG files. The PDF and the BRF should be ready to post soon.
The preparation of the Microsoft Word file, which will be the basis for the accessible PDF, is still ongoing, and this document is close to completion.
FM asked about the timing of a hard copy of a print and braille version of Guidelines and Standards for Tactile Graphics, 2022. Kyle does not have a firm timeline but assured the board that it will be soon after the files are uploaded to the website. She is hopeful that it will not be much longer than two months after the document is posted online.
Diane reminded us that the Tactile Graphics Supplement will only be available as a hard copy. Kyle noted that the manual and the supplement have all been connected so that they are produced together. Diane expressed willingness to help in the preparation of the supplement if necessary.
12. Graphing Calculator Guidelines: Jen Goulden
Jen reported that the Graphing Calculator Guidelines for use with UEB have been reviewed by the board, and feedback has been received. This review occurred after the review by Braille Literacy Canada, the BANA General Committee on UEB, and the NBA Technical Committee on UEB Math/Science.
Jen has grouped all of the feedback into the following categories:
BRF errors
incorrect pagination
small print errors
small discrepancies between print and braille
sim-braille errors and
braille code errors.
Jen and Daphne Hitchcock have made all of these corrections in both the print and the braille files. Jen will share the updated files with the board so that we can vote on it at the end of the meeting, and she will also send the synopsis of the feedback.
MSC: Diane moved to approve the Graphing Calculator Guidelines for Use with UEB. Jennifer seconded. Motion carried.
Braille Literacy Canada will be responsible for preparing the document for posting. Jen will coordinate with the Publications Committee to get the Graphing Calculator Guidelines for use with UEB posted to the BANA website.
MSC: Kyle moved to charge the Publications Committee to work with Braille Literacy Canada to prepare the Graphing Calculator Guidelines for Use with UEB document and to post it to the BANA website. FM seconded. Motion carried.
13. Music Braille Technical Committee: Karen Gearreald
Jen reported on this committee in Tamara's absence.
The only issue that Tamara asked Jen to raise was the continued lack of a committee chair. In addition, the board agreed that we would like to find more transcribers and braille readers who are passionate about music braille who may be willing to be involved on the committee. This is an area which is getting more attention internationally, but the U.S. is falling behind the rest of the UEB community.
Hollie asked about the possibility of serving on the committee. There was a reminder that board members do not usually serve as members of technical committees unless there is an emergency. It was agreed that Hollie could replace Tamara as the committee liaison. Hollie works with a number of transcribers who are proficient in Music Braille; therefore, her involvement could be useful to encourage more participation of stakeholders from the U. S. with the international community. Jen contacted Tamara to make sure she was amenable to this change.
MSC: Jennifer moved to appoint Hollie Knight as liaison to the Music Braille Technical Committee and to thank Tamara for her service. FM seconded. Motion carried.
There was discussion about the committee's past role in helping to encourage braille music education and facilitating interest in music transcription. It is possible that the committee could consider renewing these efforts.
14. Ad Hoc Committee on Chemistry: Cary Supalo
FM reported that the Chemistry Committee was pleased that the 2023 Chemistry Code document has been approved.
The American Chemical Society (ACS) is prepared to share our press release when the document is ready for posting.
The files were turned over to Publications. Holly Bullock and her team at Crawford Technologies are working on tagging the document to create an accessible PDF. They need some additional alt-text for many of the examples which are chemical equations, and the committee has been asked to provide that text. In response, FM received an email from the committee stating that committee members would prefer that, rather than a PDF, the Word version be the accessible version because of the time-consuming nature of creating alt-text for this PDF.
We discussed this prospect, but we decided that it is best to continue the precedent of using an accessible PDF. We understand the concern of the committee members and the difficulty that creating such large quantities of alt-text presents. Therefore, we decided to delay the completion of the accessible PDF and to post a BRF and a printable PDF at this time. This gives the committee more time to create the alt-text for the equations.
We brainstormed ideas to help the committee in their task of creating alt-text for the equations. We generated ideas, such as asking if anyone from the ACS would be willing to help, or the possibility of paying someone to do it. Ultimately, we decided to go back to the committee and let them know about our plan to give them more time.
MSC: FM moved that the Ad Hoc Committee on Chemistry be asked to 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. Kyle seconded. Motion carried.
General Consensus: The board will help the committee locate resources to assist in creating the alt-text.
15. International Council on English Braille: Frances Mary D'Andrea
FM reported that the International Council on English Braille (ICEB) will hold its eighth General Assembly in Auckland, New Zealand in May. The event will also be streamed and open to observers. There are 13 papers being presented; election of new officers; and keynote and midnote speeches. It is hoped that the updated Rules of UEB will be available around the same time as the assembly.
ICEB continues to be involved with the formation of the eBraille standard. There are also members of ICEB active in the promotion of music braille.
Judy confirmed the following U.S. representatives to ICEB committees:
Jennifer Dunnam, Unified English Braille Code Maintenance Committee
Joe Sullivan, Unified English Braille Code Maintenance Committee (Invited Expert)
Donald Winiecki, Unified English Braille Technical Materials Committee
Bill McCann, Music Braille
Willow Free, Braille Technology
Frances Mary D'Andrea, Braille Research
Judy informed us that Callie Brusegaard from the U.S. is nominated as ICEB Treasurer. She is an Assistant Professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston in the Vision Studies program. She has done a lot of international research in the South Pacific and in Africa.
If she is elected, the board would like to see her become involved with BANA in some capacity. It was suggested that appointing her to the General Committee on Unified English Braille would be a possibility
Judy reminded Jen that Braille Literacy Canada needs to review and confirm their committee representatives.
16. General Committee on Unified English Braille: Wendy Buckley
Wendy delivered the report as submitted.
Charge 272: Wendy mentioned that the committee has had difficulty receiving questions because of a restriction of groups.io. Sue has forwarded several questions recently, which the committee has answered. Sue will continue this practice until a more permanent solution can be created.
Charge 308: The committee has received a request from a member organization for a new word to be added to the shortform list. As they discussed this possible addition, they realized that there is not a process or set of criteria to determine whether a proposed word or symbol is appropriate for further consideration. The committee would like to develop a process for determining whether or not to send a word forward for consideration. Additional discussion of the proposed shortform will be on hold pending the development of this criteria.
Charge 349: The committee is close to completing its list of recommended edits to the UEB information sections of the website.
Charge 388: The committee reviewed the most recent version of the UKAAF guidelines document; however, they are waiting on a finalized version before they can make any recommendations to the board.
17. General Committee on Electronic Braille Translation: Jennifer Dunnam
Jennifer delivered the report as submitted.
Charge 322: The committee is in the process of updating the evaluations in the status log because many of them were quite old (circa 2019). These updates are pending. Below is a brief summary of the most current issues noted in the log.
Modified letters and emojis are still problematic, particularly as displayed in braille by PC-based screen readers. Some screen readers display the symbols correctly in braille but do not speak them. Other screen readers speak the symbols and emoji but do not display them in braille.
Contraction accuracy is improving significantly for screen readers using Liblouis.
Typeforms are usually not being displayed. Outside of translation programs such as Duxbury, typeform indicators cannot be typed in braille and displayed properly in print.
Superscripts and subscripts are also not being displayed when they are applied as font attributes
Translation from braille to print still needs a lot of work. This is especially true when math is involved. It is also true across the board for the Liblouis based screen readers.
Computer Braille Code within UEB: There is still a challenge around entering text in dialog boxes when using JAWS. The system still requires that users enter the search terms or other text as computer braille, which means that no contractions can be used, as well as requiring the old Computer Braille punctuation.
Jennifer reminded us that all of these problems are inherent to programming rather than the braille code.
A suggestion was made to collaborate with the ICEB Technology Committee to reach out to individual companies to discuss the removal of barriers to print-to-braille and braille-to-print translation. Judy suggested that the NFB convention might be a good starting point for arranging in-person meetings with each company individually.
MSC: Jennifer moved that the General Committee on Electronic Braille Translation work in collaboration with the ICEB Technology Committee to communicate with the screen reader and braille device companies to identify and remove continued barriers to accurate braille-to-print and print-to-braille translation. FM seconded. Motion carried.
Charge 426: The updated log will be posted soon.
Charge 430: A review of the current test file has revealed that many of the issues have been resolved. The committee believes that the remaining issues are not suitable for a test file; therefore, the committee would like to post the overhauled log without the test file at this time. It may be worth creating a new test file in the future highlighting the inaccuracy of braille-to-print translation.
MSC: Jennifer moved to discard Charge 430. Judy seconded. Motion carried.
[Charge 430 5/8/23
Update the test file and to document the rubric used to create it.]
18. Publications Committee: Mary Nelle McLennan
Mary Nelle delivered the report as submitted.
Charge 403: The master consolidated Microsoft Word file of the Guidelines and Standards for Tactile Graphics, 2022 is with the Tactile Graphics Committee so that the JPEG issues can be corrected in preparation for the accessible PDF.
Charge 432: The Nemeth Code 2022 document has been posted to the website.
MSC: MARY NELLE moved to change the disposition of Charge 432 to done. Jennifer seconded. Motion carried.
[Charge 432 10/25/23 Prepare the final files of the Nemeth Code 2022 document for publication and posting on the BANA website.
Charge 333: The creation of the BRF of Guidelines and Standards for Tactile Graphics, 2022 has been completed by Aloha Braille. Betty Marshall has this document to review and will make the minor corrections. Aloha Braille submitted an error log so that the Tactile Graphics Committee can make sure they agree with any changes that they made.
MSC: MARY NELLE moved to change the disposition of Charge 433 to ongoing. Diane seconded. Motion carried.
[Charge 433 10/25/23
Manage the preparation of the final BRF files of the Tactile Graphics Guidelines and Standards document for publication and posting on the BANA website.]
Charge 445: The ISBN for Chemical Notation Using the Nemeth Code 2023 has been given to the Chemistry Committee. The remediation of the PDF is underway by Crawford Technologies. The BRF is complete now that the ISBN has been added.
MSC: MARY NELLE moved to change the disposition of Charge 445 to ongoing. FM seconded. Motion carried.
[Charge 445 10/25/23
Work with the Chemistry Committee to prepare the Chemical Notation Using the Nemeth Code 2023 for publication.]
MSC: MARY NELLE moved to charge the Publications Committee to work with the Nemeth Code Technical Committee to prepare the adjusted 9.4 update to the Nemeth Braille Code for Mathematics and Science Notation, 2022 and post it to the BANA website. Jennifer seconded. Motion carried.
MSC: Kyle moved to charge the Publications Committee to work with the Braille Formats Technical Committee to prepare the errata to Braille Formats: Principles of Print-to-Braille Transcription, 2016 and post it to the BANA website. Hollie seconded. Motion carried.
MSC: Kyle moved to charge the Publications Committee to work with the Braille Formats Technical Committee to prepare the document Braille Formats: Principles of Print-to-Braille Transcription 2016, March 2024 Updates and post it to the BANA website. Wendy seconded. Motion carried.
MSC: Jennifer moved to charge the Publications Committee to 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. Kyle seconded. Motion carried.
Discussion was had about which documents APH will continue to produce for BANA.
We need an official statement about the documents that APH will produce and sell for BANA.
Kyle will provide a list of the documents that are currently being produced and sold.
This list should be reviewed on a regular basis.
General Consensus: Kyle will prepare a list of the documents that APH currently produces and sells. She will send this to the board upon approval by APH.
The question was also raised about production of the updated Rules of UEB. Specifications have been approved, but now that the new edition of the Rules of UEB is forthcoming, it is important that hard copies are produced. Upon hearing our concern, one of our observers from APH mentioned that a hard copy does exist.
19. General Committee on Digital Assets: Sue Reilly
Sue delivered the report as submitted.
Charge 411: Sue has been keeping notes about maintenance issues that arise with the website, as well as other tasks that are performed. This will eventually be compiled into a document that can be used to train others to perform website tasks.
Charge 413: A workorder process has been implemented for significant site updates.
Charge 435: It is clear that there is no one-size-fits-all solution for our various email needs. Research and troubleshooting, particularly where Groups.io is concerned, is ongoing.
MSC: FM moved to change the disposition of Charge 435 to ongoing. Danette seconded. Motion carried.
[Charge 435 10/25/23
Consider consolidating all email lists onto one platform.]
Discussion was had about the difficulties that many of the board continue to experience with Dropbox. Successful implementation for everyone is still an ongoing issue which needs to be addressed.
Charge 436: FM is working to write the information section about the Braille Excellence Award but needs assistance writing small blurbs about each recipient. MARY NELLE and Sue will send all of the press releases for her use.
MSC: FM moved to change the disposition of Charge 436 to ongoing. Kyle 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 437: Sue suggested adding an archive section for press releases to the website. However, no work has started on this project.
The Digital Assets Committee needs a new charge to work on additions such as rulings by committee and the electronic braille status log. The GCUEB Committee also has some ideas about redesign.
MSC: Kyle moved to charge the General Committee on Digital Assets to create new sections of the website and to make other changes as needed in order to implement requests submitted by committees. Wendy seconded. Motion carried.
20. General Committee on Languages Other than English: Jen Goulden
Jen reported that she is amenable to continue serving as committee chair while the committee is in maintenance mode.
It was also suggested that we could add more people to the committee; however, there may not be much work to do at this time.
MSC: FM moved to appoint Jen Goulden as chair of the General Committee on Languages other than English. Diane seconded. Motion carried.
21. Outreach Committee: Marie Zaldivar
Marie delivered the report as submitted.
Charge 357: It was suggested that our next Braille Bits podcast should be about the ICEB General Assembly.
Charge 441: The committee recommends the following steps be taken by exhibitors to ensure a smooth process:
Potential items for display include the BANA banner, BANA fact sheet, BANA poster, and BANA list of publications;
Once a decision is made to exhibit, obtain files from Dropbox and update if necessary (for example, list of publications);
Print/emboss materials;
Arrange for shipping to the venue if necessary;
Be available at the exhibit to answer questions and engage with attendees;
At close of conference, disassemble the presentation and be sure to bring the BANA banner from the conference;
Report to the Outreach Committee and the board with any feedback.
It was suggested that rather than bring physical copies of handout items, we have a QR code for attendees to scan, which would bring them to the BANA website. Depending on the conference, we may not even need physical examples of code books and other publications.
It was agreed that materials may be duplicated at the discretion of the exhibiter. Also, exhibiters need to request approval from the board regarding their exhibit materials.
Some feel that the exhibit items need to be maintained by the Outreach Committee.
We agreed that we should make a decision about exhibits at both the fall and spring meetings. There should be an addition to the Outreach committee report template regarding upcoming conferences.
The board and Outreach Committee should also be responsible for assessing feedback after each exhibit to make future improvements.
22. Appointments Committee: Tracy Gaines
Jen delivered this report in Tracy’s absence.
Jen delivered this report in Tracy’s absence. There is no new activity by the committee. There may be upcoming activity as we search for a chair of the Music Braille Committee.
23. General Committee for Review Process: Kyle DeJute
Kyle reported that there is one more small round of formatting corrections that will need to be made to the Graphing Calculator Guidelines for use with UEB.
The suggested changes have been made to the Knit and Crochet Guidelines. They have been sent back to the board for final approval.
There is nothing upcoming to review.
24. Bylaws Committee: Jennifer Dunnam
Jennifer reported that there is no new activity by this committee. She will convene the committee to begin work on the new charges after this meeting.
25. Ad Hoc Committee on Braille Signage and Labeling: Kim Charlson
Jen reported that the BANA Guidelines for the Creation of Braille Signage have been posted to the website. We still need to make an official announcement about the release of this document.
26. Ad hoc Committee on Standardized Tests: Kyle DeJute
Kyle reported that there is no current activity by this committee; however, we used the opportunity to have discussion about some issues that the committee should consider.
The committee recognizes that many states have begun to write their own guidelines about tests. The board is in agreement that for this reason, it is important that BANA publish a set of guidelines to help inform and persuade states and agencies to follow best practices. This could also be useful in helping to educate state agencies about the different codes, particularly for math and science.
It is worthwhile to emphasize in this document that students should receive test materials in the form in which they are receiving their everyday class work (e.g. thermoform graphics on tests if that is what they use in the classroom).
Katherine Padgett raised the question of the target audience. As BANA, our focus should remain on transcribers, but there is agreement that there are many stakeholders who could benefit.
Kyle suggested that it would be helpful for the committee to create an outline for the board to follow as the guidelines are being created.
Kyle assured us that the committee will meet later this spring to formulate a plan for moving forward with this document.
27. Ad Hoc Committee on eBRF: Tamara Rorie
Jen delivered this report.
Charge 398: Discussion was had about whether this charge is still relevant to BANA. It was agreed that given the work of the DAISY Consortium’s eBraille Working Group, of which numerous BANA board members are participants, this charge is no longer needed.
MSC: Jennifer moved to discard Charge 398. Motion carried.
[Charge 398 (11/18/21) Gather and review all international efforts to develop an electronic braille standard; identify which portions are within the purview of BANA; work with other national and international organizations (such as ICEB, DAISY, etc.) to determine which organization shall have responsibility for publication and maintenance of the eBRF standard; and if appropriate, draft a BANA eBRF standard.]
Charge 417: Jennifer has created a draft document to explain the difference between the Computer Braille Code and ASCII. It is still important to create this document, but we agreed that this charge should be discarded and transferred to the Committee on Electronic Braille.
MSC: Judy moved to discard Charge 417. Jennifer seconded. Motion carried.
[Charge 417 11/14/22 Develop a short document to address confusion that developers and manufacturers have about the term computer braille by the spring 2023 meeting.]
MSC: Jennifer moved to charge the Committee on Electronic Braille to develop a short document to address confusion that manufacturers have about the term computer braille. Judy seconded. Motion carried.
Charge 442: It was determined that Charge 442 is no longer important because there is plenty of information about eBraille on both the DAISY and APH websites.
MSC: Judy moved to discard Charge 442. Jennifer seconded. Motion carried.
[Charge 442 10/26/23 Develop a list of talking points (a blurb) about the activities of the DAISY Consortium and a resource list by the January meeting.]
It was agreed that this committee can be disbanded because it is redundant, given the work of the eBraille Working Group, and the fact that the same people are on the Electronic Braille Committee.
MSC: Judy moved to disband the Ad Hoc Committee on eBRF. Jennifer seconded. Motion carried.
Although this committee is being disbanded, there is lingering concern that BANA's focus on paper braille transcription will leave us behind in the push for more robust electronic braille options. Therefore, it was agreed that we need to have an active role in determining standards of producing electronic braille, and this responsibility will also be taken on by the Electronic Braille Committee.
MSC: Jennifer moved that the Committee on Electronic Braille is to participate actively through its members in the DAISY eBraille Working Group and to report on the activities of the working group. Judy seconded. Motion carried.
28. Knit and Crochet: Jennifer Dunnam
Jennifer reported that the recommendations from the review panel have been incorporated into the document. Furthermore, the task force has retained a list of proposed additions to a future document.
MSC: Jennifer moved to approve the 2024
update to the Guidelines for Transcribing Knit and Crochet Patterns. Tina seconded. Motion carried.
MSC: Jennifer moved to change the disposition of Charge 311 to done. FM seconded. Motion carried.
[Charge 311 11/6/16 Update the BRF and print examples of the Guidelines for Transcribing Knit and Crochet Patterns to be aligned with UEB.]
MSC: Jennifer moved that the Knit and Crochet Task Force work with the Publications Committee to prepare the updated Guidelines for Transcribing Knit and Crochet Patterns and post them to the BANA website. Kyle seconded. Motion carried.
MSC: Jennifer moved to charge the Publications Committee to work with the Knit and Crochet Task Force to prepare the updated Guidelines for Transcribing Knit and Crochet Patterns and post them to the BANA website. Danette seconded. Motion carried.
29. International Initiatives:
To date, no action has been taken by the World Braille Council. The president of the World Blind Union will speak at the ICEB General Assembly in Auckland, which may present an opportunity to ask her about when the necessary work of the World Braille Council will begin.
The Tactile Reading Conference will be held in June in Amsterdam.
Australia's Round Table is happening in May.
Braille Literacy Canada will hold its fourth Braille Symposium in June.
30. Secretary's Report: Amber Pearcy
Amber reported that no email votes have been taken since our last meeting.
She will send the approved February minutes to the BANA-L list.
31. Business Card Task Force: Tina Seger
Tina reported that the Fact Sheet on Business Cards has been approved.
MSC: Tina moved to change the disposition of Charge 420 to done. FM seconded. Motion carried.
[Charge 420 2/13/23
Update the fact sheet on business cards by the spring meeting.]
MSC: Tina moved to disband the Business Cards Task Force. Kyle seconded. Motion carried.
32. Update of the eBraille Working Group: Willow Free
Willow began by giving a basic overview of eBraille.
eBraille is a flexible file format that will be able to automatically re-flow based on the size of the braille display. Mark-up can be used to add styles, which will reflow the document. DBT and BrailleBlaster already use mark-up. Braille 2000 will have the most changes to make because this program does not utilize mark-up. APH is also working on an open source converter, which will take a file made according to Braille Formats 2016 and will convert it to an eBraille file.
Tactile graphics in eBraille will currently be based on JPEG, PNG, PDF, and SVG file formats. While all of these file types have limitations, SVG is the best of the four types.
There will be an images folder associated with the eBraille file, and this folder will be linked in the tagged document wherever a tactile graphic occurs.
All of the material that comprises an eBraille file will be inside of a folder with an extension such as .ebraille. It may also be possible to create Epub files from eBraille files, which would give the user more flexibility because ePub files can be read by various web browsers. At this time, ePub support is not enabled by all braille displays, but an option to open the ePub file in a browser may be more flexible.
Embossers will rely on their software to support eBraille. There may be situations where a file will need to be downgraded from eBraille to BRF if support is lacking.
eBraille offers flexibility to turn off certain formatting features, such as running heads and page numbers. They will still be in the document, but they can be turned on or off as needed.
The changes for transcribers will be minimal. They will perform additional tasks, such as adding links to documents for items like notes, tables of contents, etc., as well as links to signify where the graphics should be placed in the file. Transcribers will also have to become familiar with styles if they aren't already.
For other applications, there is optimism that eBraille will facilitate the move away from ASCII to Unicode. It is also hoped that tactile graphics will transition to SVG files, which is a richer experience.
33. Treasurer's Report: Danette Johnson
Danette delivered the report as submitted.
The board discussed procedures for requested reimbursement for ICEB travel expenses. It was agreed that participants should have their airfare reimbursed in advance of the trip; we will still ask travelers to document the airfare expense on any expense form submitted, even if the form is submitted after completing the trip. Alternatively, if the traveler prefers, they may submit two travel forms—one before and one after the trip— to account for reimbursements.
It was noted that we need to update the mileage rate to $0.67 because that is the most recent federal rate.
Danette had several requests for a W9 from organizations. There is a question concerning what we should use as our mailing address on our W9.
We are unsure if we are required to use the address of our registered agent or the address where we are incorporated.
After contacting Kim Charlson, we know that we should use the address in Minnesota.
FM let the board know that the Awards Committee went slightly over budget in December because the plaque was shipped directly to the recipient in the UK.
34. Policy on Pre-Publication Documents: Tamara Rorie and Kyle DeJute
Kyle delivered this report.
This policy was created to avoid lengthy discussions about who should have access to pre-published documents, as well as to eliminate bias in decision-making. This policy also does not cover certification courses.
The policy currently prohibits those attending a presentation based on pre-published documents from taking notes, photos, etc. It may be unrealistic to ask people not to take notes. We will modify this to say that people should not take pictures.
The policy states that people wishing to use pre-published documents must submit requests in writing. In a scenario where someone was making a request to use pre-published documents for multiple presentations at the same workshop, people asked for clarification about whether multiple written requests would need to be submitted. The suggestion was made that requests should be made concerning specific events, and that a person could use these documents for multiple training sessions at said event. However, we may want to know how many trainings will occur. Also, it should be made clear that permission is only granted for a specific window of time.
It was agreed that we do need to develop a policy on courses related to certification. A couple of the points raised relating to courses were that we need to clearly define the difference between a general braille course and a course relating to certification. Criteria for certification courses was discussed, including that a certification course must have a national reach--nationally recognized by either of the two member countries of BANA.
Several additional questions were raised: should we allow non-committee members to access unpublished documents in order to work on creating certifications and courses? Does it depend on the stage where the code is at in development? Should there be a distinction between new courses and existing courses that need to be updated?
If we are worried about bias, then we would need to say that no course development can be done unless BANA documents have been approved; however, we could possibly allow access between the approval stage and the publication stage. We could possibly say that training couldn't begin until the document was published.
We will expand the task force to work on the issue of access for creating courses. The task force will now consist of Amber, Kyle, and Tamara.
35. Certificates of Appreciation: Mary Nelle McLennan
MARY NELLE reported that all of the print certificates are completed. APH has clear adhesive labels that can be used to create the braille overlay on the certificates. Kyle and MARY NELLE will begin work on this soon.
There are no new names to add to the list of people who need to receive certificates.
36. Directory Update: Sue Reilly
Sue reported that she has been working on a directory update, which she can send to the board as a draft. She will also add the most updated directory to the Dropbox when it is complete.
Several board members asked for a version of the directory as an Excel spreadsheet for better access with screen readers. However, Sue will work on making the Word version more screen reader friendly.
37. BANA's Listservs: Sue Reilly
Sue reported that some of the Groups.io email is going to people's spam folders. This is another issue to look into regarding the mailing lists.
One solution may be creating our own email domain name, which would not be free.
Jen mentioned that we also need to fix the chair@brailleauthority.org address because it is still associated with ACB. Judy will help facilitate contact with the technology person at ACB.
38. BANA's Archives: Frances Mary D'Andrea
FM delivered the report as submitted.
Michael Hudson has put FM in touch with the new person in charge of archives at APH, Mary Beth Williams. She and FM are still working to make sure there is a best practice for ensuring that email and other electronic portions of the archive are submitted to APH.
39. Press Releases: Mary Nelle McLennan
MARY NELLE reported that there will be several upcoming press releases. There will be an official press release about this meeting. There will also be forthcoming publication announcements about the updated Tactile Graphics guidelines, updated chemistry document, updated graphing calculator guidelines, and updated knit and crochet document. We will add information about the two errata documents for Nemeth and Formats, as well as information about the officers elected in the fall.
Jen raised the issue of posting the information about upcoming meetings with enough time before the meeting to give people the chance to plan to observe. There should also be a deadline in the press release to RSVP for observers.
Jennifer will remind us of the new deadlines laid out in the BANA Policies document.
The question of providing food for the observers was also raised, particularly when an organization is paying per person for food. The new policies say that this is at the discretion of the host organization.
40. Unfinished/Continued Business
There was no unfinished/continued business.
41. New Business:
41.1: Jennifer asked about the possibility of changing the report shells so that only the technical committee reports have a Rulings by Committee section. Sue said that it would be easy to remove them from the reports that do not need them.
General Consensus: Sue will remove the Rulings by Committee section from all report shells other than those of the technical committee reports.
41.2: FM suggested that we include charges for committees in the meeting agendas even if there are not reports for the committees. The charges would fit into the agenda wherever the committee report would go.
General Consensus: We will include the charges in the agenda for committees that do not have reports.
42. Upcoming Fall Meeting: NBA
Diane reported that the BANA meeting will occur after the NBA conference, which is occurring October 23-25, 2024. The BANA meeting will occur October 26-28, 2024. The meeting will take place at the Antlers Hotel in Colorado Springs.
We will probably receive hotel information in late April.
NBA will produce the BANA agenda materials, which means that we will need to ask for committee reports earlier than usual.
43. Upcoming Zoom Meetings: Jen Goulden
Jen proposed that we skip the April teleconference and resume in May. The date will be May 13, 2024 at 1:00 P.M. Eastern Time. Amber will send an Outlook meeting invite.
44. Future Spring and Fall Meetings:
MARY NELLE reminded us that AER is scheduled to host the spring 2025 meeting. AER is a fully remote organization; therefore, MARY NELLE suggested that we hold the meeting at the Texas School for the Blind in Austin, Texas. MARY NELLE would like to decide on dates as soon as possible, as there are a lot of schedules to coordinate.
The list of future meetings is as follows:
Spring 2025: AER
Fall 2025: NBP
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
45. Around the Table: Organization Updates (time permitting)
Members gave updates about happenings in their organizations.
46. Adjournment: Jen Goulden
Jen adjourned the Spring 2024 meeting of the BANA board on March 27, 2024 at 11:30 A.M. Eastern Time.
Respectfully submitted,
Amber Pearcy
April 23, 2024