World Braille Usage Refreshed

byMary Schnackenberg, President

andDr. Judith M. Dixon, Secretary

International Council on English Braille (ICEB)

National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped

Think Globally, Act Locally

• Audience

• History

• Data collection

Audience

• Transcribers

• Braille producers

• Braille readers

World Braille Usage lists the braille codes used to represent the world’s various languages.

History

• First published by UNESCO in 1953

• Revised in 1990 by the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS), Library of Congress, in Washington, D.C.

• Second edition:– 124 print pages– 97 languages

Data Collection

• In 1984 questionnaires were sent out to 590 organizations

• 85 countries listed

• 3,000 print copies distributed

Goals of Third Edition

• New countries

• Hundreds of languages

Opportunities of Third Edition

• Outputs in hard-copy print or paper braille

• Displayable on electronic braille devices

• Contains updated braille International Phonetic Alphabet

To hold the “master” of World Braille Usage online:

Who Are We Surveying?

• Call for participating braille authorities will be sent out in June 2010

• NLS has set up a web page to capture responses: www.nlstalkingbooks.org/wbu

Goal is to establish at the outset which organization in each country is the “braille authority” for that country or for each language spoken in that country.

Exclusions and Inclusions

• Codes for mathematics and science

• Braille shorthand systems

• Details about formats of braille

Same policies of inclusions and exclusions for the next edition.

Exclusions:

The Survey Questions

• Survey not written yet

• Follow-up process will be in place

• Surveys in languages other than English will be provided, if necessary

Data Entry of the Survey Responses and Publication

• Difficult to estimate how long it will take

• Goal is to complete World Braille Usage by next General Assembly of ICEB