2021 Teleconferences

Braille Authority of North America Board Meeting Monday, September 20, 2021, 1:00 p.m. Eastern

1. Call to Order: Tamara Rorie

Tamara Rorie, BANA Chair, called the meeting to order at 1:02 p.m. Eastern Time.

2. Roll Call

The following board members were in attendance:

  • Tamara Rorie, National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress (NLS), Chair
  • Mary Nelle McLennan, Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (AER), Vice Chair
  • Jen Goulden, CNIB (Canadian National Institute for the Blind), Secretary
  • Danette Johnson, Hadley Institute for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Treasurer
  • Jennifer Dunnam, National Federation of the Blind (NFB), Immediate Past Chair
  • Judy Dixon, American Council of the Blind (ACB)
  • Frances Mary (FM) D'Andrea, American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)
  • Guy Toles, Center for Inclusive Design and Innovation (CIDI)
  • Cathy Senft-Graves, American Printing House for the Blind (APH)
  • Tracy Gaines, California Transcribers and Educators for the Blind and Visually Impaired (CTEBVI)
  • Tina Seger, Clovernook Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired
  • Cindy Skandera, Horizons for the Blind
  • Diane Spence, National Braille Association (NBA)
  • Amber Pearcy, National Braille Press (NBP)
  • Kim Charlson, Perkins School for the Blind
  • Susan (Sue) Reilly, Administrative Assistant
  • Holly Bullock, associate member Crawford Technologies

Not attending:

  • Marie Zaldivar, Alternate Text Production Center (ATPC)

Observers:

  • Kyle DeJute
  • Wendy Buckley

3. Vote On Minutes: Tamara Rorie

MSC: Jen moved and FM seconded that we accept the minutes from our meeting of August 16th as amended. Motion carried.

4. Discussion on APH Products: Tamara Rorie

At our August meeting, Cathy asked whether APH should produce additional copies of the Nemeth Code and other related documents. She sent an email to BANA-l listing the quantities of each document that APH currently has so that the board could make an informed decision. It was noted that once all of the hard copies are gone, NLS will not be able to have anyone start the Nemeth certification until the updated versions are available.

GC: The Nemeth Code and related documents will not be produced after existing inventories have been depleted.

5. Report from Awards Committee: FM D’Andrea

FM read the report that she had circulated to the board before the meeting.

It is as follows:

The BANA Awards committee met on Friday, Sept. 17, 2021, to consider nominations for the Darleen Bogart Braille Excellence Award. The committee felt that no nomination received fit the specific criteria for this award. As a result, the committee does not put forward a candidate for the award this year. The next time the award will be considered is 2023; nominations received this year can be considered again as well as any new nominations received at that time.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Frances Mary D’Andrea, Award committee chair

Kathy Kremplewski

Sandra Ruconich

Tamara stated that the board can accept this report without a vote.

6. Report from Web Migration committee: Jennifer Dunnam

The Web Migration Task Force met with Pumex early in September. Jennifer noted that there is some additional work that needs to be done as the result of a Drupal upgrade. In order to complete the process, we then have to upgrade to a paid account with Pantheon and transfer our domain. We need to locate the credentials for our domain before this can be done. Jennifer is working with ACB on this and will keep the board updated.

Mary Nelle suggested that the Web Migration Task Force should meet to discuss the process of migrating the web content. There are things on the site that need to be changed, such as information related to UEB. Jennifer recommended doing this soon after the new site goes live.

7. Report from Review Committee: Jennifer Dunnam

The reviews of the Chemistry and Nemeth documents will be completed by the end of September and October respectively. FM noted that she has received three of the surveys for the Chemistry review.

The Tactile Graphics (TG) Committee has made the changes requested by the reviewers of the TG guidelines and is waiting for the Publications Committee to provide feedback on changes that will be needed in order to create the Accessible PDF version. Mary Nelle explained that the Publications Committee is still in the process of determining the changes that need to be made and who should make them.

8. Report from Publication’s Committee Mary Nelle, McLennan

Mary Nelle thanked the board for the guidance provided at our August meeting with regard to document accessibility. She confirmed that the Publications Committee is still trying to determine how to proceed, given the three major documents that will need to be remediated. The committee is currently investigating options for outsourcing these files. If any board members feel that their organizations might be interested in this work, they should contact Mary Nelle. She has already had some discussions with APH and would also like to approach CommonLook about remediating the Tactile Graphics document.

Tamara met with the Publications Committee after our August meeting to discuss usability of Accessible PDF files. Mary Nelle then initiated a discussion within the committee on this issue. Committee members filled out a Google survey and Mary Nelle compiled responses so that the committee could meet to discuss them. Mary Nelle advised the board that the Publications Committee will provide a complete response on usability and accessibility of BANA documents at the next BANA board meeting. Tamara will send the document that discusses usability requirements to BANA-l.

Mary Nelle asked Diane to provide the Publications Committee with the files that include the changes from the TG review. A discussion ensued about next steps and how to proceed with this document. FM asked about timelines for board reviews of TG, Chemistry and Nemeth. Will the board review take place before or after the Publications Committee’s assessment of the changes that need to be made to the TG document? She suggested that the board should be more connected with the documents. We could then have another board review (with a shorter timeframe) after the document has been remediated. Jennifer proposed that the Review Committee come up with a recommendation for how this final review would work, but she suggested that 15 days might be feasible.

Tamara asked Jennifer and the Review Committee to recommend a process for the board review of this document.

BANA needs to pay someone to produce hard copies of the graphics so that the braille readers on the board can review them.

MSC: Jennifer moved and FM seconded that the board review the content of the Tactile Graphics Guidelines before remediation takes place. Motion carried.

MSC: Jennifer moved and Jen seconded that there be a final, abbreviated board review of the Tactile Graphics Guidelines after remediation and prior to publication. Motion carried.

9. Adjournment: Tamara Rorie

Tamara adjourned the meeting at 2:44 p.m. Eastern Time.

Braille Authority of North America Board Meeting Monday, August 16, 2021, 1:00 p.m. Eastern

1. Call to Order: Tamara Rorie

Tamara Rorie, BANA Chair, called the meeting to order at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

2. Roll Call

The following board members were in attendance:

  • Tamara Rorie, National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress (NLS), Chair
  • Mary Nelle McLennan, Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (AER), Vice Chair
  • Jen Goulden, CNIB (Canadian National Institute for the Blind), Secretary
  • Danette Johnson, Hadley Institute for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Treasurer
  • Jennifer Dunnam, National Federation of the Blind (NFB), Immediate Past Chair
  • 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)
  • Guy Toles, Center for Inclusive Design and Innovation (CIDI)
  • Cathy Senft-Graves, American Printing House for the Blind (APH)
  • Tracy Gaines, California Transcribers and Educators for the Blind and Visually Impaired (CTEBVI)
  • Tina Seger, Clovernook Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired
  • Cindy Skandera, Horizons for the Blind
  • Diane Spence, National Braille Association (NBA)
  • Kim Charlson, Perkins School for the Blind
  • Susan (Sue) Reilly, Administrative Assistant
  • Holly Bullock, associate member Crawford Technologies

Not attending:

  • Amber Pearcy, National Braille Press (NBP)

Observer:

  • Kyle DeJute, American Printing House for the Blind (APH)

3. Approval of Minutes: Jen Goulden

Tamara had not yet circulated the minutes to the board so they will be approved by email.

 

4. Foreign Language Task Force: Jennifer Dunnam

Jennifer noted that the guidance document is nearly completed and that Jen will do the BRF. The members of the Foreign Language Task Force are: Jennifer, Jen, and Rebecca Sherwood, who has been very involved with NBA.

The BANA board needs to decide on the best way to do a review of the updated foreign language guidance. We did not do a full technical review of the existing guidance, which was published in 2015, and Jennifer asked if the board would be comfortable following the same process this time. Jennifer explained that there is new guidance that doesn’t duplicate anything in Braille Formats and replaces the 2015 version. The rationale in 2015 was that this guidance isn’t a code with new symbols that might conflict with other codes. Board members would be able to share with experts in their organizations for more input. With this in mind, Jennifer proposed that we conduct a board review rather than a technical review.

Diane asked for more detail on the overall review process, so Tamara asked Jennifer to put this in writing for the board. Jen and Jennifer will work on the file so there should be minimal work for Publications to do in order to post it on our web site.

GC: The foreign language guidance document will undergo a board review, rather than a full technical review.

Judy raised the discussion that had taken place at the most recent ICEB executive meeting regarding the terminology of foreign vs. non-English languages. No decisions were made at this time.

5. APH discussion regarding BANA publications: Cathy Senft-Graves

Cathy explained that international sales are handled manually but APH wants to have them processed through their shopping site. In addition, APH would like permission from BANA to sell hard copy BANA documents internationally. Music Braille and Braille Formats are current, but they are concerned about selling hard copies of documents that are being updated. FM suggested that APH put copyright dates on the site, which should address any potential confusion.

We also discussed the need for hard copies of the UEB rule book, since it is currently only available for purchase from RNIB. Although other BANA member agencies could produce this, it was felt that we should start with APH, since they are the official producer of BANA code books in hard copy print and braille.

GC: The Board grants permission for APH to sell hard copy BANA publications internationally.

Cathy then asked whether APH should be producing any more copies of the Nemeth Code and related documents. She will send out the numbers of existing copies in print and braille for each publication so we can decide by email. The board recommended that APH include a statement on their web site with these documents, such as “a revision is under development”.

6. BANA’s Role re: braille codes for indigenous languages: Judy Dixon and Tamara Rorie

Judy and Jen explained that there have been several instances of braille codes being developed by people who know little about the language in question and nothing about braille. This is unlike the situation with the Navajo code because Carol Begay Greene is both a native speaker of Navajo and a braille reader herself. She was also able to have the code approved by people within the Navajo community.

The board needs to decide how we’ll handle these situations when they arise in the US. BLC will have the same discussion with regard to Canada. This is out of scope for ICEB, so they would like braille authorities to deal with issues regarding braille codes for languages spoken in their own countries. In the meantime, the ICEB executive has tasked Jen Goulden with developing a resource to be posted on the ICEB web site. This document will include guiding principles and links to helpful resources, such as World Braille Usage. Robert Englebretson has agreed to assist with this project. Jen and Robert will involve others as needed.

Jen will bring the draft to the board when she is looking for feedback. It was suggested that we could post a link to World Braille Usage on the BANA web site. We could also add a page with information on braille codes other than English, or possibly a position paper.

7. Perkins Representative: Kim Charlson

Kim advised the board that she will be stepping down from BANA at the end of this year due to her international responsibilities with the World Blind Union. The new Perkins rep will be Wendy Buckley.

Mary Nelle thanked Kim on behalf of the board for her hard work and her many years of service to BANA.

8. BANA’s participation in NBA Conference: Marie Zaldivar and Tamara Rorie

We discussed whether or not it’s appropriate for BANA as a non-profit to give money to other non-profit organizations. Another issue that was raised is that we don’t want to set a precedent.

MSC: Judy moves and Jennifer seconds that BANA politely decline NBA’s invitation to be a sponsor at its conference in 2021 because, in general, our position is that we don’t participate in sponsorships. Motion carried. Diane abstained.

9. Discussion of Document accessibility: facilitated by Tamara Rorie

The board had a lengthy discussion about the challenges of creating accessible documents.

Mary Nelle provided some background for this discussion. The Tactile Graphics Committee has been working on the updated guidelines for many years. Over that time, much has changed with regard to MS Word and other aspects of electronic document creation. The Publications Committee has reworked its processes and has changed what it requires from authoring committees. The Tactile Graphics document is very visual and needs a lot of remediation before it can be published. It contains more than 200 pages, not including the supplement. It will be extremely difficult to make this 100% accessible for screen readers. It was noted that we must balance the requirement for 100% accessibility with our limited resources and the need to get content out to those who need it.

Tamara discussed 508 compliance and explained that the law looks at things on a case-by-case basis. As long as there is an accessible version, the requirement is considered to be met. We have posted PDF and BRF files on the web site and advised that the hard copy versions would later be available for purchase, but there is no precedent for posting files and then making them accessible later. We don’t currently track file downloads, so we don’t have data on how people are accessing our documents. We agree that a 100% accessible PDF is not required but we will have a text-based, usable PDF and a BRF as well. The board has already agreed to outsourcing document remediation when appropriate.

The TG Committee had requested funds to pay for the BRF and the supplements, as well as $5000 for a face-to-face meeting that didn’t happen. Tamara suggested that a smaller group could come up with proposals with regard to outsourcing this file but that we should agree on the overall approach at this meeting.

We need to draft specifications for what constitutes an acceptable, usable document. This could possibly be a position paper or a guidance document, and Mary Nelle suggested that it would be for internal and external use. Tamara will put together a task force to develop this guidance. In the meantime, she will draft a document prior to meeting with the Publications Committee next week that outlines the board meeting discussion on specifications for usability.    

GC: The PDF version of the Tactile Graphics Guidelines will be a usable, text-based file.

10. Adjournment

Tamara adjourned the meeting at 3:07 pm. Eastern Time.

Respectfully submitted,

Jen Goulden (Secretary)

September 1, 2021

Braille Authority of North America Board Meeting Monday, July 19, 2021, 1:00 p.m. Eastern

1. Call to Order: Tamara Rorie

Tamara Rorie, BANA Chair, called the meeting to order at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

2. Roll Call: Jen Goulden

The following board members were in attendance:

  • Tamara Rorie, National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress (NLS), Chair
  • Mary Nelle McLennan, Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (AER), Vice Chair
  • Jen Goulden, CNIB (Canadian National Institute for the Blind), Secretary
  • Danette Johnson, Hadley Institute for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Treasurer
  • Jennifer Dunnam, National Federation of the Blind (NFB), Immediate Past Chair
  • Marie Zaldivar, Alternate Text Production Center (ATPC)
  • Guy Toles, Center for Inclusive Design and Innovation (CIDI)
  • Cathy Senft-Graves, American Printing House for the Blind (APH)
  • Tracy Gaines, California Transcribers and Educators for the Blind and Visually Impaired (CTEBVI)
  • Tina Seger, Clovernook Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired
  • Cindy Skandera, Horizons for the Blind
  • Diane Spence, National Braille Association (NBA)
  • Amber Pearcy, National Braille Press (NBP)
  • Susan (Sue) Reilly, Administrative Assistant
  • Holly Bullock, associate member Crawford Technologies

Not attending:

  • Judy Dixon, American Council of the Blind (ACB)
  • Frances Mary (FM) D'Andrea, American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)
  • Kim Charlson, Perkins School for the Blind

Observers:

  • Kyle DeJute
  • William Freeman

Vote by email

[Text from email sent to BANA-l by Jennifer Dunnam on June 6th:

The Chemistry Committee and the Nemeth Committee have both completed their work on their updated codebooks and have turned over the files for review. Both of these documents are updated versions of existing codes and have been developed with involvement from board liaisons and others with solid knowledge of how to create BANA documents as well as code expertise.

As a result, the liaisons to these committees offer the motion below for board vote.]

MSC: Jennifer moved and FM seconded as follows:

  1. that the manuscripts of the Braille Code for Mathematics and Science Notation within Unified English Braille Contexts, 2021 Revision, and the Braille Code for Chemical Notation Using UEB with Nemeth, 2021 Revision, be determined ready for the initial review process; and
  2. that the technical review and the QC review for each of these documents be conducted by a single panel (that is, one panel for the Nemeth update and one panel for the Chemistry update).

Tamara called for votes to be submitted by 5:00 p.m. Eastern on June 11th. Cathy made a friendly amendment to add Nemeth to the title of the mathematics and science code document and this was accepted.

  • Tamara Rorie, National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress (NLS), Chair: Yes
  • Mary Nelle McLennan, Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (AER), Vice Chair: Yes
  • Jen Goulden, CNIB (Canadian National Institute for the Blind), Secretary: Yes
  • Danette Johnson, Hadley Institute for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Treasurer: Yes
  • Jennifer Dunnam, National Federation of the Blind (NFB), Immediate Past Chair: Yes
  • Marie Zaldivar, Alternate Text Production Center (ATPC)
  • Judy Dixon, American Council of the Blind (ACB): Yes
  • Frances Mary (FM) D'Andrea, American Foundation for the Blind (AFB): Yes
  • Cathy Senft-Graves, American Printing House for the Blind (APH): Yes
  • Guy Toles, Center for Inclusive Design and Innovation (CIDI): Yes
  • Tracy Gaines, California Transcribers and Educators for the Blind and Visually Impaired (CTEBVI): Yes
  • Tina Seger, Clovernook Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired: Yes
  • Cindy Skandera, Horizons for the Blind: Yes
  • Diane Spence, National Braille Association (NBA): Yes
  • Amber Pearcy, National Braille Press (NBP): Yes
  • Kim Charlson, Perkins School for the Blind: Yes

On June 24th, Tamara advised the board that the vote had passed.

 

3. Discussion of Specifications For eBraille: William Freeman (APH)

William explained the work that APH is doing to develop a standard for dynamic, navigable BRF files. For more detail see the document “eBRF Braille Style Sheet” that Tamara sent to BANA-l before this meeting. This version is geared to the braille community, but William is working on a more technical, less braille-centric document intended for developers.

One issue is that Braille2000 isn’t as style-based as DBT and BrailleBlaster. The goal is to have conversion software that can take a BRF and convert it to eBRF, particularly for literary material. It will also be possible to convert from eBRF to a standard BRF. The eBRF format will be Unicode-based, which will facilitate file conversion and should make things much easier for manufacturers. William noted that the biggest hurdle will be backtranslation. In addition, page numbers can be toggled on and off and there would also be a where-am-I command.

Another item of discussion is the reflow of text to account for varying line lengths.

Tamara volunteered to help with testing and anyone else who is interested should contact William. She also indicated that we may ask William to present on this topic at a future meeting.

4. Approval of Minutes From Spring Meetings: Jen Goulden

MSC: Jen moved and Amber seconded that we approve the minutes with Cathy’s amendments. Motion carried.

Jen will update the file name to indicate that the minutes have been approved and will resend them to BANA-l.

5. Darleen Bogart Award of Excellence: FM D'Andrea

FM sent emails to BANA-l before this meeting indicating that she has asked Sandy Ruconich and Kathy Kremplewski to serve on this year’s Darleen Bogart Award of Excellence Committee. Sandy is the former ACB representative to the BANA board and Kathy is a transcriber who works at the Florida Instructional Materials Center.

The nomination form needs to be sent out as soon as possible, so once the committee is established they will start working on this.

FM has also reached out to Cay Holbrook and Janie Blome to ask if BANA can present the award (if it is given) during the Getting in Touch with Literacy conference in December and they both readily and enthusiastically agreed. 

MSC: FM moved and Jennifer seconded that Sandy Ruconich and Kathy Kremplewski serve on this year’s BANA Awards committee.

FM will submit wording for a press release to be sent to BANA-announce or BANA-all with a due date for nominations to be received by August 31. That should give enough time for nominations to be received and for the committee to consider them and still have sufficient time for any recipient to plan to attend the Getting in Touch with Literacy conference in December if they chose to do so. If necessary, we could get a video made or connect with the person live.

6. Bylaws Vote: Jennifer Dunnam

Jennifer summarized the amendments that had previously been circulated to the board. She also noted that items related to the secretary’s duties will be revisited in the future when updates are made to ensure that the Bylaws and Policies reflect current practices.

MSC: Jennifer moved and Guy seconded that we accept the amendments to the Bylaws and Policies as presented. Motion carried.

MSC: Jennifer moved and Tracy seconded that the disposition of Charge 358 be changed to done. Motion carried.

[Charge 358 (5/2/19): Complete an internal review of the BANA Policies to ensure that all the necessary changes are being made.]

MSC: Jennifer moved and Cathy seconded that the disposition of Charge 374 be changed to done. Motion carried.

[Charge 374 (11/7/19): Update the Policies and Bylaws to reflect committee changes as of the Fall 2019 meeting.]

Secretary’s Note: After this meeting, Sue advised that the disposition of Charge 374 had been changed to done in January 2020.

7. Website Update: Jennifer Dunnam

Jennifer thanked everyone who provided feedback and advised the board that it has been sent to Pumex. The lead we’ve been working with is no longer with the company and we were reassigned to someone else. Unfortunately, Jennifer’s email was inadvertently filtered to this individual’s junk folder, but the issue has been sorted out. We’ll be receiving a response in the next couple of days regarding our feedback on the pages we tested.

8. Foreign Language Report: Jennifer Dunnam

The Foreign Language Task Force is almost ready to submit a draft to the board for approval.

9. Tactile Graphics Report: Diane Spence

Diane summarized the Tactile Graphics report that was submitted for the spring 2021 meetings.

She also noted that the Tactile Graphics Committee’s target date for submitting the revised Tactile Graphics document to the board is October 1st, for approval at our fall meeting. Mary Nelle asked if the October 1stdeadline takes into account any changes that may be required by the Publications Committee and Diane said that it does not. Some of the changes that Publications will request could be made by the authoring committee. We need to have a conversation about the workflow for this specific document. The Review Committee will discuss the process proposed by the Tactile Graphics Committee at their upcoming meeting.

MSC: Diane moved and Jen seconded that the disposition of Charge 354 be changed to done. Motion carried.

[Charge 354 (5/2/19): Work with the Publications Committee and the General Committee for Review Process to determine the process for the review of the upcoming tactile graphics revision and bring a recommendation to the Fall 2019 meeting.]

MSC: Diane moved and Cathy seconded that the disposition of Charge 387 be changed to ongoing. Motion carried.

[Charge 387 (11/8/20): Work with the Publications Committee and the General Committee for Review Process to determine the process for review of the supplement to the Tactile Graphics guidelines and bring a recommendation to the Board by spring of 2021.]

The Tactile Graphics Committee asked the Nemeth Committee about their proposed change in the position of the open Nemeth indicator because the Nemeth guidance is now inconsistent with Tactile Graphics. They have not yet received a response. Jennifer noted that the Nemeth committee was having an offline conversation about this and that she will follow up with them.

Cathy confirmed that APH will make the supplements for the updated Tactile Graphics Guidelines available by quota funds. She also asked how long APH should sell the current version of the Tactile Graphics Guidelines. APH has 28 print copies left and Tamara suggested that they wouldn’t need to print any more. Braille copies are made to order so APH staff should advise anyone who orders a braille copy that an updated version is under development.

10. Reminders: Tamara Rorie

Our next meeting will take place on August 16th for two hours.

Jackie Sheridan Witterschein will chair the Standardized Tests Committee. Whitney Gregory and Catherine Padgett will serve on the committee as well.

11. Adjournment: Tamara Rorie

Tamara adjourned the meeting at 2:25 EDT.

Respectfully submitted,

Jen Goulden (Secretary)

July 23, 2021

BANA Board Meeting: April 2021 Monday, April 19, 2021, 1:00 p.m. Eastern

1. Call to Order: Tamara Rorie

Tamara Rorie, BANA Chair, called the meeting to order at 1:00 Eastern Time.

2. Roll Call: Jen Goulden

The following board members were in attendance:

  • Tamara Rorie, National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress (NLS), Chair
  • Mary Nelle McLennan, Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (AER), Vice Chair
  • Jen Goulden, CNIB (Canadian National Institute for the Blind), Secretary
  • Danette Johnson, Hadley Institute for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Treasurer
  • Jennifer Dunnam, National Federation of the Blind (NFB), Immediate Past Chair
  • Judy Dixon, American Council of the Blind (ACB)
  • Frances Mary (FM) D'Andrea, American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)
  • Guy Toles, Center for Inclusive Design and Innovation (CIDI)
  • Cathy Senft-Graves, American Printing House for the Blind (APH)
  • Tracy Gaines, California Transcribers and Educators for the Blind and Visually Impaired (CTEBVI)
  • Tina Seger, Clovernook Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired
  • Cindy Skandera, Horizons for the Blind
  • Diane Spence, National Braille Association (NBA)
  • Amber Pearcy, National Braille Press (NBP)
  • Kim Charlson, Perkins School for the Blind
  • Susan (Sue) Reilly, Administrative Assistant
  • Holly Bullock, associate member Crawford Technologies

Not attending:

  • Marie Zaldivar, Alternate Text Production Center (ATPC)

3. Vote on minutes from Fall 2020 and Winter 2021

MSC: Jen moved and Tracy seconded that the minutes from the February 25 meeting be approved, with the understanding that Jen will correct the remaining typographical errors. Motion carried.

Tamara thanked Tina and Cathy for their feedback on the minutes, and a brief discussion took place about how board members should give feedback going forward. Corrections and suggestions can be provided in an email. They can also be sent in the draft minutes, but comments are preferable to track changes and should be added to a clean version of the minutes.

Tamara then called for a vote on the minutes from the November 8-10 meetings. Judy had already made extensive changes based on feedback provided by the board. Tamara noted that there are still some formatting changes to be made, and Sue has agreed to take care of this. None of the remaining adjustments are related to the substance of the minutes.

MSC: Judy moved and Tina seconded that the minutes from the November 8-10 meetings be approved, with the understanding that Sue will make the final formatting adjustments. Motion carried.

4. Treasurer’s Report: Danette Johnson, Treasurer

Danette provided year-to-date financial information to the board prior to the meeting, but these documents were not discussed. She advised the board that while most member organizations have paid their dues for 2021 there are still a few outstanding. Danette sent reminders and cc’d the organization’s BANA representative.

5. Discussion of Spring meeting for 2021: Tamara Rorie

The meeting had been scheduled for May 6-8 but Tamara proposed moving it to June to give more time for the preparation of committee reports. A very lengthy discussion ensued. We discussed the advantages and disadvantages of continuing with monthly meetings rather than holding a semi-annual meeting this spring. It was suggested that the main value of having a longer meeting is that it gives us a holistic picture of what is going on across BANA committees. It also affords an opportunity to discuss significant issues at length, without feeling pressured for time. At the same time, we acknowledged that lengthy Zoom meetings can be extremely draining.

We also discussed other possible times to hold a semi-annual meeting but this proved difficult because schedules in June and July are already filling up.

MSC: Judy moved and Jennifer seconded that we cancel our spring 2021 meeting and continue with our monthly meetings. The motion was defeated.

MSC: Jennifer moved and Mary Nelle seconded that we hold our spring 2021 meeting on May 6-7 from 10:00-12:00 and 1:00-3:00 Eastern Time and then continue with our monthly meetings. Motion carried.

Tamara then asked Mary Nelle to put together a press release to announce the spring meeting.

 

6. BANA appointments for ICEB: Tamara Rorie

Tamara advised the board that BANA has appointed Donald Winiecki, a professor at the University of Idaho, as the US representative to the ICEB UEB Technical Committee. She also appointed William Freeman to represent the US on the ICEB Refreshable Braille Technology Committee. William is the Tactile Technology Product Manager at APH.

7. Update from Review Committee: Jennifer Dunnam

Jennifer noted that although there is no report at this time, she will call a meeting of the Review Committee within the next week or two. This committee now has only four members, so Jennifer has asked to appoint Diane Spence to serve as well.

MSC: Jennifer moved and Cathy seconded that Diane Spence be appointed to the Committee on Review Process. Motion carried.

8. Web Migration Report: Jennifer Dunnam

Jennifer stated that the work is nearly complete and that the Web Migration Task Force will soon have a draft site to review. We need to purchase a Pantheon account, which will cost approximately $40/month. A module within Drupal will allow us to manage the BANA-announce listserv, but there are still some issues that need to be resolved. Kim added that she is trying to clean up this list before turning it over to Sue. Most of the migration to groups.io is now complete. Sue and Kim will discuss details of the BANA listservs offline.

9. Report on Formats: Guy Toles

The Formats Errata Task Force has advised the Formats Committee that the board continues to review the list of errata and changes. The Task Force categorized the items as follows:

  • errata – less than a dozen of the items on the list fall into this category;
  • clarifications;
  • changes – items that reverse previous decisions or add concepts not already addressed;
  • foreign-language guidance – these items had already been discussed by the Foreign Language Task Force in conjunction with the Formats Committee;
  • amendments to the addendum; and
  • issues that contravene code rules – we need to understand why the Formats Committee proposed these changes.

The Task Force recommends a sequence for addressing these items, beginning with the errata. The errata and clarifications should be fairly straightforward, but it is important to ensure that there are no conflicts with the Tactile Graphics Guidelines. Jennifer noted that we have a process for dealing with the addendum and the foreign-language updates, and these should also be relatively straightforward.

Tamara would like the board to vote on the errata no later than the fall meeting.

10. CTEBVI Conference feedback: Tina Seger

The presenter for one of the conference sessions stated that Nemeth will be phased out. This individual also used draft documents circulated to the ICEB Code Maintenance Committee listserv as teaching tools in the session and presented them as official documentation. CTEBVI is now aware of the situation and will contact the presenter with regard to both of these issues.

11. Chemistry Committee: FM D’Andrea

A few errors were found in the BRF version of the 1997 Chemistry Code and Mountain View has made the corrections. The Chemistry Committee indicated that a few more changes are needed. The file has been sent to Tamara, who will review and follow up.

12. Adjournment

Tamara adjourned the meeting at 2:37 p.m. Eastern Time.

Respectfully submitted,

Jen Goulden, Secretary

BANA Board Meeting: Winter 2021 Thursday, February 25, 2021, 1:00 p.m. EST

1. Call to Order (Tamara Rorie)

Tamara Rorie, BANA Chair, called the meeting to order at 1:00 Eastern Time.

2. Roll Call

The following board members were in attendance:

  • Tamara Rorie, National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress (NLS), Chair
  • Mary Nelle McLennan, Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (AER) Vice Chair
  • Jen Goulden, CNIB (Canadian National Institute for the Blind), Secretary
  • Danette Johnson, Hadley Institute for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Treasurer
  • Jennifer Dunnam, National Federation of the Blind (NFB), Immediate Past Chair
  • 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)
  • Guy Toles, Center for Inclusive Design and Innovation (CIDI)
  • Cathy Senft-Graves, American Printing House for the Blind (APH)
  • Tracy Gaines, California Transcribers and Educators for the Blind and Visually Impaired (CTEBVI)
  • Tina Seger, Clovernook Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired
  • Cindy Skandera, Horizons for the Blind
  • Diane Spence, National Braille Association (NBA)
  • Amber Pearcy, National Braille Press (NBP)
  • Kim Charlson, Perkins School for the Blind
  • Susan (Sue) Reilly, Administrative Assistant

Not attending:

  • Holly Bullock, for associate member Crawford Technologies

Tamara asked board members to introduce themselves.

3. Introduction of New Member (ATPC)

Tamara welcomed Marie Zaldivar and asked her to introduce herself. She also asked Sue to add Marie to the BANA directory and listservs.

Marie provided some background on her role at ATPC, as well as her previous work experience.

4. Update from the Treasurer

The account was transferred from our previous treasurer to Danette in the last week or so. Now that she has access, she will begin sending out invoices for annual dues to member agencies.

5. Review Process for Chemistry Document

It was decided that Jennifer, Tamara and FM will have a separate meeting (organized by Tamara) to discuss the review process and timelines for this document before the Chemistry Committee meets next Thursday. Some members of the publications committee will also attend this meeting.

6. Early Literacy Materials Production (ELMP)

Cathy reported that the Guidelines for the Production of Early Literacy Materials was published on the BANA web site in December 2020. Charge 370 is now completed.

MSC: Cathy moved and Mary Nelle seconded that the disposition of charge 370 be changed to done. Motion carried unanimously.

Cathy stated that Bonnie Read provided an overview of the guidelines to trustees at APH and to a group of transcribers in Minnesota. Other workshops are being planned as well, such as Access Academy, NBA and CTEBVI. The information is getting out to BANA’s stakeholders.

FM advised that UK Association for Accessible formats (UKAAF) is interested in using these guidelines as a basis for a similar document in the UK.

MSC: Cathy moved and FM seconded that the Ad Hoc Committee on Early Literacy Materials Production be dissolved now that charges are complete. Carried unanimously.

We need to thank the committee and send certificates to Bonnie Read, Susan Spicknall, Jane Thompson and Dorothy Worthington.

7. Discussion of Meeting Schedule (Tamara Rorie)

APH is scheduled to sponsor the fall 2021 board meeting. We discussed the fact that travel may be more expensive that weekend due to the Thanksgiving holiday and several board members expressed a preference for making this meeting virtual.

MSC: Mary Nelle moved and Kim seconded that we suspend the bylaws and establish that the fall 2021 face-to-face meeting be held virtually. Opposed by Judy. Carried.

The board decided that the fall meeting will take place November 18-20 via Zoom.

Tamara led a discussion of the upcoming meeting schedule. We will schedule 1-1/2 hours once a month, the third Monday of each month from 1:00-2:30 p.m. Eastern Time. The next meeting will be held on March 15th. Tamara also noted that we need to discuss the future face-to-face meeting schedule as well. She plans to set up a call with the reps for APH, NBA and NFB to adjust the schedule. They will bring a proposal to the board at the April meeting.

8. Report from Web Migration Committee and Listservs (Jennifer Dunnam)

Listservs: Jennifer informed the board that Sue is continuing to work on the migration of the listservs to groups.io. Sue agreed that she could complete this by March 15th.

We confirmed that board members are subscribed to all BANA technical committees and that the BANA Chair is on every listserv. Chair@brailleauthority.org is bouncing so Kim will look into this.

Website: Pumex has put the pages of the BANA web site into a testing environment. The Task Force on Web Migration is meeting with Pumex on a regular basis to discuss various issues, including recommendations regarding server environments. The task force is reviewing the site externally and also from the perspective of content management. It is close to completion and should be ready by end of March.

9. Publications Committee Discussion of Errata Document (Mary Nelle McLennan)

Mary Nelle sent a draft of the Guidance for Creating an Errata Sheet or Correction Notice for BANA Publications to bana-l prior to this meeting. She stated that we have not done many errata sheets and that the most extensive one was for Braille Formats 2011. In this draft Mary Nelle proposed a process that BANA could use to get errata sheets documented, compiled and produced. Tamara suggested that the board determine what the review process would be on a case-by-case basis. Mary Nelle will revise the document based on feedback from board members and then resend it to bana-l. Once approved, it will become part of the Authoring Guidelines.

It was suggested that liaisons should share this with committees once it has been finalized. In addition, when committees are given a charge to prepare an errata sheet, the board liaison should ensure that the committee has access to this guidance.

10. Formats: Review of Errata and Changes Document Submitted To Board (Guy Toles)

Guy led a discussion on the errata file prepared by the Formats Committee. It was sent to the board prior to this meeting. He acknowledged that the committee has put a lot of effort into this assignment, which they requested in 2018. They developed the errata based on comments and questions received through NBA’s Ask an Expert and from workshops presented by Cindi Laurent. There are two charges, one for errata and another for changes and clarifications; however, the committee has provided both the errata and the changes in the same file.

The following concerns were raised during the board discussion:

  • Very few items in the file could be considered errata.
  • Some of the suggested changes will affect the revision of the Tactile Graphics Guidelines.
  • Some of the suggested changes contravene the rules of UEB.
  • The extent of the changes and clarifications almost constitutes a revision rather than an errata sheet.

Jennifer suggested that we review the document to determine which changes we would or would not accept. We may not agree as to which items are errata and which are changes but we can identify what we believe are errata and then advise the committee as to which of the changes we would entertain. Jennifer recommended that the approach to foreign languages and the content regarding the Marrakesh Treaty should be included on the list of changes  we  would entertain. 

GC: There was a general consensus that Tamara should appoint a task force to review the errata file provided by the Formats Committee. Guy, Jennifer, Jen, Mary Nelle and Diane agreed to serve on the task force.

The Formats Committee will then prepare a revised errata. Guy will let the committee know that the errata file is currently under review by the board and that we will provide feedback by April 1st.

11. Adjournment

Tamara adjourned the meeting at 2:53 PM. Eastern Time.

Respectfully submitted,

Jen Goulden (Secretary)