Press Release March 2013 For Immediate Release ________________________________ CONTACT: Frances Mary D’Andrea, Chair Braille Authority of North America Phone: 412-521-5797 Email: literacy2@mindspring.com<mailto:literacy2@mindspring.com> BANA to Hold Spring Board Meeting in Washington, D.C. The Braille Authority of North America (BANA), which meets face-to-face semiannually, will hold its 2013 spring meeting April 11-13 in Washington, D.C. This meeting is hosted by the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS), a BANA member organization. Meetings on April 11 and 12 will take place in the Madison Building at the Library of Congress, which is located at 101 Independence Avenue, S.E., Washington, DC 20540. Meetings on Saturday, April 13, including an Open Forum, will be held at the Arlington Public Library, 1015 N. Quincy Street, Arlington, VA 22201. As always, interested parties are invited to observe the BANA Board meetings. Items on the Board’s agenda include reports from all of BANA's technical committees such as music, formats, and tactile graphics. In-depth reports will be presented by the BANA Bylaws Committee as well as the Unified English Braille (UEB) Task Force. To learn the process required to comply with special security requirements and procedures for entry to federal buildings and to reserve a seat as an observer, please contact BANA Chair Frances Mary D’Andrea at 412-521-5797 or by email at literacy2@mindspring.com<mailto:literacy2@mindspring.com>. Saturday morning, BANA will host an Open Forum that provides a venue for participants to discuss braille with the Board and to learn more about the workings of BANA. Members of the BANA Board will share plans for the transition to UEB. Forum participants are encouraged to discuss their views and suggestions surrounding braille and its future. Braille readers, teachers, and students as well as producers and distributors of braille are encouraged to take advantage of this opportunity to participate in a round-table discussion with the members of the BANA Board. The Open Forum will be held Saturday, April 13, from 10:30 A.M to 12:00 noon at the Arlington Public Library. A meet-and-greet time with snacks will begin at 10:00 A.M. To reserve your space at the Open Forum and to help ensure accurate counts for handouts, contact Frances Mary D’Andrea. For additional resource information, visit www.brailleauthority.org<http://www.brailleauthority.org/> The Board of BANA consists of appointed representatives from fifteen member organizations of braille producers, transcribers, teachers, and consumers. The mission and purpose of the Braille Authority of North America are to assure literacy for tactile readers through the standardization of braille and/or tactile graphics. BANA promotes and facilitates the use, teaching, and production of braille. It publishes rules, interprets, and renders opinions pertaining to braille in all existing codes. It deals with codes now in existence or to be developed in the future, in collaboration with other countries using English braille. In exercising its function and authority, BANA considers the effects of its decisions on other existing braille codes and formats; the ease of production by various methods; and acceptability to readers. Diane P. Wormsley, Ph. D. Brenda Brodie Endowed Chair Professor of Special Education in Visual Impairment Editor in Chief, Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness North Carolina Central University 2085 H.M. Michaux, Jr. School of Education 700 Cecil Street Durham, NC 27707 Phone: 919-530-7693 Fax: 919-530-5353 Email: dwormsley@nccu.edu ________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned by the Symantec Email Security.cloud service. For more information please visit http://www.symanteccloud.com ______________________________________________________________________