Natalie Martiniello - Director

Dr. Natalie Martiniello is a lifelong braille user and a Professor in the visual impairment rehabilitation program at the Université de Montreal. She teaches future blindness and low vision rehabilitation professionals and leads a research program that focuses on advancing adult braille learning and non-visual accessibility for people who are blind or who have low vision. Before this, she worked as a certified Vision Rehabilitation Therapist (CVRT) where she taught braille and access technologies to blind and low vision youth and adults. Her time on the BLC board began in 2013, including serving as President between 2018 and 2022, then Past-President and now serving as a Director on the board. She is also the Chair of the Research committee for the International Council on English Braille (ICEB) and serves on the BLC Teaching and Learning, Communications, Braille Zoomers and Advocacy and Awareness committees. Natalie is an avid reader and loves to travel. Her most memorable trip was to Coupvray, France, where she visited the birthplace of Louis Braille, the inventor of the braille code that she uses every day.