BRAILLE AUTHORITY OF NORTH AMERICA (BANA) meets in the Triangle area!!!!!
The Braille Authority of North America (BANA) held their spring meeting from Tuesday-Thursday, May 13-15, in the Triangle area. They met at three locations--giving interested persons a chance to attend at least one session. The Tuesday meeting was in Durham at NCCU, the Wednesday meeting was at the Governor Morehead School, and the meeting on Thursday was in the Research Triangle Park at the hotel where the members of BANA were staying.
Although it was possible to attend all three sessions, many persons interested in braille took the opportunity to attend at least one. The Wednesday session at the Governor Morehead School was the business meeting. That afternoon, there was a public forum where input was sought from those interested in braille. Discussion centered around two possible changes being considered. One change relates to how differences in bold and italicized words and passages are portrayed in braille. With print styles continuing to change, new symbols are needed to indicate how print copy shows emphasis. The other item looked at was how to portray menus. This was very enlightening, and there was a lot of input about this. It was also pointed out that many of those who use braille prefer menus to be on 8-1/2 by 11 paper rather than on the 11 by 11-1/2 braille paper. The smaller menus are easier to pass around where there are cups and glasses and other items that make it sometimes tricky to pass the menus back and forth.
Another point of interest discussed at the business meeting was the need to further develop policies concerning how business cards are written. Both business cards and signs are challenging to the braille transcriber because there is often a small amount of space where lots of information needs to be given. Many of us in the past have just used common sense and logic to decide what to leave out or put in. It was agreed by all that it would be helpful to develop some policies for handling issues such as capitalization, computer braille code indicators, etc. Many of us get questions about how to transcribe items of this nature and it was agreed that it would be helpful to have a place where answers could be obtained easily. There was also a side discussion about signs, and there was the consensus that signs often have errors. There was some discussion about how this issue can be addressed. It was pointed out that when print signs are made they are proofread, but apparently the braille signs aren't always proofread before they're put up for the public to use.
As always, it's an honor to be able to attend the BANA meetings, and it was fun to put names/faces/voices together and spend time with members of the BANA Board, some of whom I've talked with for years.
More information about BANA will be given in a future article.
Deborah Barnes,
Co-Chair, BLC
