February 2016
For Immediate Release
Contact: Jennifer Dunnam, Chair
Braille Authority of North America
612-767-5658
chair@brailleauthority.org
At its November 2015 meeting, the Braille Authority of North America (BANA) elected the officers who will serve during the 2016 calendar year. The officers are Chair, Jennifer Dunnam (National Federation of the Blind); Vice Chair, Sandra Ruconich (American Council of the Blind); Secretary, Ruth Rozen (The Hadley School for the Blind); Treasurer, Jackie Sheridan (National Braille Press).
The new year has brought additional Board changes. Diane Wormsley, who has represented AER (Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired) on the BANA Board since 2004, has retired from her professorship at North Carolina Central University and is leaving the BANA Board to pursue other interests. Diane has co-chaired BANA's research committee, and her amazing memory of BANA actions as well as her thoughtful insights will be greatly missed.
Diane's position of AER representative will be filled by Mary Nelle McLennan, who has been the representative from the American Printing House for the Blind (APH) since 2007 and just completed five years as BANA's Vice Chair. Mary Nelle will continue to serve on the Board, now representing AER. We are grateful to retain Mary Nelle's depth of knowledge and experience and anticipate her continued participation and contributions, especially as Chair of BANA's Publications Committee.
Cathy Senft-Graves has been appointed as the new representative from APH, where she is the Braille Literacy and Technology Project Leader. The BANA Board looks forward to her service.
BANA's spring meeting will be held May 19-21, 2016, at the Maryland School for the Blind in Baltimore. Observers are welcome. This meeting will immediately precede the quadrennial meeting on May 22-26 of the International Council on English Braille (ICEB), which will occur at the headquarters of the National Federation of the Blind, also in Baltimore. More details about BANA's spring meeting will be announced in a forthcoming press release.
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The Board of BANA consists of appointed representatives from seventeen member organizations of braille producers, transcribers, teachers, and consumers.
The mission of the Braille Authority of North America is to assure literacy for tactile readers through the standardization of braille and/or tactile graphics.
The purpose of BANA is to promote and to facilitate the uses, teaching, and production of braille. Pursuant to this purpose, BANA will promulgate rules, make interpretations, and render opinions pertaining to braille codes and guidelines for the provisions of literary and technical materials and related forms and formats of embossed materials now in existence or to be developed in the future for the use of blind persons in North America. When appropriate, BANA shall accomplish these activities in international collaboration with countries using English braille. In exercising its function and authority, BANA shall consider the effects of its decisions on other existing braille codes and guidelines, forms and formats; ease of production by various methods; and acceptability to readers.