1. World Braille Usage Refreshed
by
Mary Schnackenberg, President
and
Dr. Judith M. Dixon, Secretary
International Council on English Braille (ICEB)
National Library Servicefor
theBlind and Physically
Handicapped

2. Think Globally, Act Locally
• Audience
• History
• Data collection

3. Audience
• Transcribers
• Braille producers
• Braille readers
World Braille Usage lists the braille codes
used to represent the world’s various
languages.

4. 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

5. Data Collection
• In 1984 questionnaires were sent out to
590 organizations
• 85 countries listed
• 3,000 print copies distributed

6. Goals of Third Edition
• New countries
• Hundreds of languages

7. 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:

8. 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.

9. 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:

10. 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

11. 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