Some organizations have such reputations for longstanding excellence that we just assume that anything they set forth to accomplish will inevitably bear that stamp of excellence too. The National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) and the Perkins School for the Blind are certainly two such organizations, and when the announcement of the first ever Braille Summit circulated, expectations were naturally high. As a seasoned attendee at, arguably, too many conferences, I was delighted by the invitation to participate in the Braille Summit and knew that the conference would be worthwhile. After attending, my assessment is that this one succeeded well above expectations and, more importantly, concluded on a note of significant hope for the future of braille and those who write and read it.
The Purpose
Most AccessWorld readers are at least somewhat familiar with the endangered status of braille in our community. Too many blind children are not taught to use braille, and only a small number of adults losing sight are exposed to braille as a literacy medium. Production costs are high, and personal braille devices are expensive.
Yet, everyone, blind or sighted, with an intimate knowledge of the tactile reading system developed by Frenchman Louis Braille recognizes it as the key to literacy for those unable to use print effectively. Its users have a proven track record of more education, more secure employment, and more confidence in all matters involving literacy.
Karen Keninger, NLS director since early last year and a fervent supporter and user of braille, wanted some direction beyond her own beliefs for the future of braille and the direction NLS should pursue. She threw the proverbial ball to key staff Judy Dixon and Steve Prine, who subsequently recruited Kim Charlson, director of the Perkins Talking Book and Braille Library, and the planning for the Braille Summit began. Mary Nelle McLennan of the American Printing House for the Blind was then recruited for the key role of planning strategies for facilitating the conference.
As Judy Dixon, NLS consumer relations officer, explained it, the coordinators knew they were assembling some of the best minds in the world of braille in one place, and they wanted more than a gathering in which every member present was a lover of braille. They wanted results, a list of recommendations that might serve as a guide for later strategizing.
While location of a conference might not be its most pivotal element, it certainly plays a role in successful planning, and in this case, the Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, Massachusetts was exactly right. The 40-acre campus offered ample and comfortable spaces for sessions and meals, and walking the park-like grounds between sessions was a definite bonus.
The conference had a more global presence as well. All panel presentations were streamed live via the Perkins YouTube channel, and updates were issued via Twitter.
How It Worked
Over three days (June 19–21), panel presentations representing the views of various stakeholders within the braille community were heard. We heard from braille readers, librarians, technology specialists, braille producers, and educators. We heard about policies affecting the teaching of braille in schools and from a 16-year-old who uses braille in everything she does. We heard about technology past and present, and about the costs of braille production. All of these are exactly what you would expect to hear when gathering a hundred individuals who all believe in the importance of braille. What made the conference a real success was its interactive nature. You might say it "worked" because it was work!
Following each panel presentation, attendees were divided into four focus groups, which were assigned randomly beforehand by numbers on our name tags. For each follow-up breakout session, targeted questions were designed by facilitator Mary Nelle McLennan and the conference coordinators. With those questions and skilled leaders in every breakout room, participants drew up lists, lists, and more lists of ideas addressing those questions.
Issues addressed, of course, were such matters as the past, present, and future of braille readership, production, technology, what the National Library Service is doing well or not so well, and what it needs to do in the future.
The items above are a dramatic simplification of the actual questions, of course, but the resulting discussions were framed in such a way that truly wonderful and amazing ideas were often floating through the air, and there was never (at least in any of the sessions I attended) an instance of a lull where no one had a single thing to say.
Although every list containing each idea, magnificent or miniscule, traveled home to Washington DC with the NLS staff, there was also a component in the planning for compiling a more manageable "blueprint" for braille's future.
At the end of each session, each group voted for its top three priorities, and after all of the sessions at the summit were complete, more voting occurred. In other words, a shorter list of concerns, dreams, and priorities was the ultimate synthesis of three days' work.
Topics of Conversation
Without giving the full final list of priorities here, it may interest AccessWorld readers to know what sorts of ideas were on the minds of the Braille Summit participants. What the National Library Service or anyone else does with these ideas, of course, remains to be seen.
It should go without saying (but I'll say it anyway) that no one at the conference believed braille should go away. All considered it to be the premiere tactile reading system for those unable to use print effectively and believed braille to be an essential tool of education and employment for people who are blind.
The way in which braille is delivered to braille readers, however, was another matter. Every breakout session I attended included the notion of a refreshable braille display, one that could deliver both Grade 1 and Grade 2 braille and that included a dictionary. Obviously, if NLS were ever to distribute such a braille display to all braille reading patrons as it has done historically with machines capable of playing recorded books, a less expensive means of developing and producing such a display will need to be found.
Another topic that surfaced in a variety of ways in every discussion was the notion that braille is often not taught or used simply because it does not have a popular public image. When comparing it with American Sign Language, for example, which has been transformed from an odd set of mannerisms observed among people who are deaf to a trendy means of visual communication and understood to some degree by most in the general public, braille is still relegated to the realm of the odd or exceedingly difficult by those unfamiliar with it. Thus, we concluded that there needs to be a "Braille is Cool" campaign to give a facelift to the image of braille.
Many felt strongly that more materials of high interest to adults but with simpler vocabulary and shorter length need to be produced in braille and distributed by NLS, and that more affordable production methods need to be developed.
Kudos are in order to NLS and Perkins for coordinating a conference that had a definite focus and that netted results. That the work was accomplished in a comfortable and welcoming environment made the work for braille lovers an even more pleasant one.
In time, all of us will know what the brainstorming that occurred at the first ever Braille Summit will manifest, but there is reason for optimism.
If you would like to see and hear the panel presentations for yourself, they have been archived at the Perkins website in the News and Events archive. For tweets regarding the conference, search #nlsbraille or @BrailleSummit.
