Diana Brent - Director

From the time my fingers first touched dots on a page in Grade 1 at Jerico Hill School for the Blind, I loved braille, and I am always advocating for more braille every chance I get. From grades 4 through 12 in the public school system, and then in the music program at UBC in the early '70's, access to braille was always a fight and a challenge; and more often than not, audio texts or human readers were substituted by necessity. My first job out of university was with the Workers' Compensation Board in Vancouver, providing braille materials informing visually impaired claimants that the Blind Workmen's Compensation Act was being repealed because it no longer served the needs of its constituents. Working as a rehabilitation teacher at CNIB in the late '70s and early '80s I taught myself (and then trained others) to use the tape-based Versabraille, which was one of the very early single-line electronic braille displays/notetakers. My access to, and use of this braille technology has evolved since then, but it has remained a mainstay in my arsenal of access tools. In the various jobs I have held up until my retirement in 2013, whether training others to use access technology through private contracts or as a TVI, managing the Disability Information Services of Canada's (DISC) computer network, which was a precursor to the Internet, or providing braille transcription services, which I continue to do, braille has figured prominently in my work.

I have been on a variety of local, provincial and national disability-focused committees and boards since the late '80s, including as an ongoing member of the BLC Braille Zoomers Planning committee, CCD, Voice of Albertans with Disabilities, Access Calgary's Handi-bus committee, and most recently for almost four years, as a board member of AEBC, where I have always championed the inclusion of braille, ensuring that it is not forgotten and remains central in their work. I am proud to have been recently appointed to BANA's Braille Formats Committee, where we are currently updating the formatting rules of the UEB code.

I live in Calgary with my husband where we enjoy frequent visits with our two daughters' families which include four grandchildren between 6 and 15.