Newsletter - June 2026

In This Issue

1. President's Message (Kim Kilpatrick, BLC President)
2. Celebrating Braille, celebrating you!
3. Braille Literacy Canada and CAER celebrate the release of the National Guidelines for the Production of e-Text
4. The 2026 BLC Symposium: Six Dots, No Limits (Amanda Cape)
5. A Note From Your ICEB Rep (Jen Goulden)
6. BANA Holds Its Spring Meeting in Pittsburgh, PA
7. The Brailler Bounce Initiative
8. Corporate Corner: Crawford Technologies
9. Braille Access in iOS (Jen Goulden)
10. Accessible Greeting Cards
11. Braille Art Corner: Time to travel... come fly with us on this little airplane.
12. Social Media Links

President's Message

By Kim Kilpatrick, BLC President

I am excited and honoured to be writing my first president's message for this newsletter!

For anyone who does not know me, my name is Kim Kilpatrick. I have been totally blind since birth and a braille user since age 5. I remember my huge excitement on touching my very first braille dots. Sure, they felt like just a bunch of dots at first. But even then, I loved reading so very much and felt frustrated that I could not read for myself or write all of the wonderful stories that continuously filled my head. I knew even then that braille was the key that would open magical worlds of books and writing for me. I was right about that. I use braille every day and I am using a braille display with my computer to write this to you now. I couldn't imagine a life without braille and am passionate about making sure braille is included in all accessibility decisions being made all over Canada.

Over the past few months, we have been very busy. We have hosted a two-part workshop about Braille Access, along with our sixth annual Braille Symposium. You can read about both of these events more fully below. Our Annual General Meeting was held on June 13th and we are definitely excited about the year ahead.

My thanks and gratitude to Daphne Hitchcock, who has steered the BLC board with such skill and enthusiasm for the past four years.

Now, as we approach summer, I hope that those of you who are learning braille - or who have been reading it for years - can take some time to enjoy a favourite book, poem, or recipe using braille. For those of you who teach braille to eager learners like I was, thank you for opening those doors. For those who transcribe and proofread the braille I read every day, thank you. For those family members who were like mine and learned and promoted braille in the house, thanks to you.

Here's to a relaxing summer filled with braille!

Celebrating Braille, celebrating you!

Edie Mourre Scholarship

Congratulations to Shay Hammad, Emily Morgan and Christina Lee, recipients of the 2026 Edie Mourre Scholarship. Thank you for your commitment to braille - ensuring that high quality braille continues to be taught and produced. We wish you the best as you pursue your course work in braille.

For the full announcement, please see our press release: Braille Literacy Canada announces the winners of the 2026 Edie Mourre Scholarship

President's Award

Congratulations to Karen (Kae) Brophey, recipient of the 2026 President's Award. Throughout her career, Kae lead the way as a strong advocate of braille, working diligently to develop programming which specifically benefitted young learners and their families.

Kae coordinated the annual Creative Writing Contest, formerly known as the CNIB Braille Accuracy and Literary Contest which began in 1997. And she was instrumental in the development of resources that promoted early literacy opportunities for young readers. These resources included a program that provided families with a tactile print/braille book, activities and resources to help young learners develop skills in tactile exploration, while introducing braille format.

Additionally, Kae contributed to the development and/or facilitated these braille-centric programs: Braille Club at the Hub, Ontario Braille Challenge, National Book Club for adult readers and Accessibility of the TD Summer Reading Club.

Kae is known for her innovative programme ideas, her boundless enthusiasm, and unwavering passion for braille literacy. Through the President's Award, BLC recognizes Kae's remarkable contributions to national programming and provision of educational opportunities for those who are blind or with low vision.

For the full announcement, see: Braille Literacy Canada Honours Karen (Kae) Brophey with the 2026 President's Award

Braille Challenge

Congratulations to the four Canadian finalists who participated in the International Braille Challenge in Los Angeles on June 27th: Sienna W (Apprentice), Isaiah G. (Sophmore), Janna C. (Junior Varsity), Keaton H. (Varsity). These students earned top scores among more than 2,000 competitors who took part in this year's Braille Challenge season. Celebrating braille excellence and literary, the Braille Challenge is an international braille reading and writing competition for students from many parts of the world, including the US, Canada, UK, Australia, Ireland and Kenya. BLC applauds the work that these youngsters have put into preparing for the Braille Challenge and wishes them the very best.

Braille Literacy Canada and CAER celebrate the release of the National Guidelines for the Production of e-Text

The Canadian Association of Educational Resource Centres for Alternate Format Materials (CAER) and Braille Literacy Canada (BLC) today acknowledge the official release of the National Guidelines for the Production of e-Text. These guidelines, developed collaboratively by CAER member centres and hosted by Braille Literacy Canada (BLC) on its website, represent the foundational standard for all e-Text produced for Canadian students with print disabilities.

For students with print disabilities, access to course materials is a prerequisite for equitable participation in education. e-Text produced to a consistent national standard ensures that students using screen readers, refreshable braille displays, and other access technologies can access learning content that is logically organized, and fully navigable. Without adherence to these guidelines, students risk receiving inaccessible documents that, for example, cannot be read aloud in the correct sequence, fail to convey image descriptions, or do not allow for the navigation of complex scientific notation and tabular content. Without equitable and timely access to learning materials, students with print disabilities are at a disadvantage that negatively impacts their learning experience and scholarly outcomes.

For more information, please see the full announcement at: https://www.brailleliteracycanada.ca/en/news/2026-06-etext-guidelines

The guidelines are available at https://www.brailleliteracycanada.ca/etext.

The 2026 BLC Symposium: Six Dots, No Limits

By Amanda Cape

The Braille Literacy Canada 6th annual Braille Symposium was held on May 22, 2026. The theme of this year's symposium was Six Dotsd No Limits.

There were four presentations that were held over the course of the event. The first one was about braille learning for adults. The second one was on the topic of innovations in technology with regards to braille, specifically the invention of multi-line braille displays. I found this presentation especially interesting as I had the opportunity to use a Canute display as part of a braille reading/braille display research study. The third presentation was about accessibility in libraries for children and adults alike. I especially liked the idea of having an accessible book club, as I would love to be part of a book club here in Fredericton, where I reside. The final presentation of the event was a workshop about 3-D printing and its usefulness in orientation and mobility contexts. Overall, I found this symposium enjoyable and learned some new things along the way! I look forward to finding out what next year's symposium will have to offer.

Recordings and resource materials will be available this summer through the 2026 BLC Symposium page at https://www.brailleliteracycanada.ca/en/programs/workshops/symposium-2026.

A Note From Your ICEB Rep

By Jen Goulden

Mid-Term Executive Meeting

The Executive Committee of the International Council on English Braille (ICEB) has made the decision to move its mid-term executive meeting to be a fully online event. Member countries and interested observers will be able to join via Zoom and give input into the various discussions.

The meetings will take place from Sunday, August 9, to Thursday, August 13, 2026, from 20:00-23:00 UTC. The agenda and registration details will be sent out via iceb-announce and will be posted on our web site.

Code Maintenance Committee

The ICEB Code Maintenance Committee (CMC) has been working on a significant update to Section 6 of The Rules of Unified English Braille, Third Edition (2024), which deals with Numeric Mode. Matthew Horspool, the ICEB Code Maintenance Officer, expects to call for a vote in the coming weeks.

Technical Material

The committee responsible for updating Unified English Braille Guidelines for Technical Material (GTM) 2014 approved a revision of Section 1.7 of this document, "Choice and Placement of Grade 1 Indicators". On June 4th this committee, in conjunction with the ICEB Public Relations Committee, hosted a town hall via Zoom to provide an overview of the changes. The event was very well received, with nearly 200 people from various countries registering to attend. Many thanks to all who helped make this event a success, in particular James Bowden, who presented the material and put together the handout we sent to participants. The ICEB Public Relations Committee is planning additional town hall sessions, so stay tuned for more information!

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ICEB brings together English-speaking countries from around the world and is the body responsible for Unified English Braille (UEB). The General Assembly is held once every four years, with a midterm face-to-face meeting of the ICEB Executive Committee taking place two years into each term.

If you'd like to learn more about braille on the international stage, visit https://www.iceb.org or write to info@blc-lbc.ca.

ICEB produces a newsletter under the direction of its Public Relations Committee, which is chaired by Stuart Lawler of Ireland. The newsletter is jam-packed with all sorts of braille-related events and information from around the world. We welcome suggestions, so if you would like to contribute to the newsletter or if you have ideas for items that could be included in future issues, please write to info@iceb.org.

If you'd like to receive the newsletter, UEB updates and other announcements directly into your inbox, we invite you to subscribe to our one-way announce list by writing to iceb-announce+subscribe@groups.io.

You can also follow us on Facebook, or on Twitter and Mastodon at @ICEBbraille.

BANA Holds Its Spring Meeting in Pittsburgh, PA

The Braille Authority of North America (BANA) held its 2026 spring meeting in Pittsburgh, PA, on May 11 through 13. The American Foundation for the Blind (AFB), a BANA member organization hosted the meeting on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh.

BANA Chair Jen Goulden presided throughout the meeting. Dr. Sirry Alang and Dr. Eboni M. Zamani-Gallaher from the School of Education at the university welcomed BANA to the campus. Eric Bridges, President and CEO of AFB greeted the Board and shared congratulations on its fifty years of work to support literacy for braille users.

During its three-day meeting, the BANA Board reviewed semiannual reports from its general, technical, and Board committees, each of which continues to work on codes and guidelines through specific charges from the Board. The Board acted on recommendations from these committees and issued new charges when appropriate. Discussions were held around 3D printing, braille and Artificial Intelligence (AI), and electronic braille translation. Separate ad hoc committees were established to gather details around trends and methodologies used in 3D printing and the role of AI in braille translation, with reports expected at a future meeting.

While the Board continues its schedule of monthly remote meetings via Zoom, the in-person gathering underscored the value of physical presence. The face-to-face meeting provided an opportunity for hands-on access to explore and compare 3D printed samples while discussing various applications for the technology as it applies to braille and tactile access to information.

The 50th Anniversary Celebration Planning Task Force presented a progress report to the Board, outlining ongoing and future activities to commemorate this important milestone. To mark the significance of this golden jubilee, the group shared a celebratory cake during the lunch break, providing a much-appreciated chance to connect and celebrate our history together. The Board extends a sincere thank you to the Penn-Del chapter of AER for generously providing the beautiful cake.

The Center for Inclusive Design and Innovation (CIDI) will host BANA's fall meeting in Atlanta, GA. Additional information will be announced nearer the meeting date.

Interested parties are invited to attend and observe the BANA Board's face-to-face meetings. If you are interested in being an in-person observer, please contact BANA Chair Jen Goulden by email at chair@brailleauthority.org.

The mission of the Braille Authority of North America is to assure literacy for tactile readers through the standardization of braille and/or tactile graphics.

You can follow the work of BANA through Facebook and X and BANA's website at https://www.brailleauthority.org/.

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The Braille Authority of North America, familiarly known as BANA, celebrates a golden milestone in 2026! For half a century, BANA has worked to promote and facilitate the uses, teaching, and production of braille across the United States and Canada.

Although BANA officially came into existence in 1976, its origins lie in the early work of dedicated individuals and organizations who joined together to develop codes and standards for braille materials in the United States and Canada. BANA was established in its current form from these foundational efforts. As we celebrate BANA's 50th anniversary, we honor not only 50 years of formal existence, but a much longer legacy of commitment to literacy for tactile readers and standardization of braille and/or tactile graphics.

Throughout this year, we will honor the people, progress, and partnerships that have defined our journey. We invite those who use and love braille to join us in celebrating this milestone anniversary by sharing your stories about braille and why it's important to you. We'll be using the hashtag #BANA50th.

You can follow the work of BANA through Facebook and X and BANA's website at https://www.brailleauthority.org/.

The Brailler Bounce Initiative

The Brailler Bounce Initiative aims to ensure that any unused Perkins Braillers find their way into the hands of a blind child, adult, or senior who can benefit from the ability to write in braille! Since 2015, Braille Literacy Canada has been collecting unused Perkins Braillewriters, refurbishing them, and re-distributing them to those in need, at no cost to any of the recipients.

If you have an extra Perkins Brailler sitting around that you no longer need, please consider donating it to the our Brailler Bounce Initiative! Even if it isn't in perfect working order, we'll see if it can be fixed and then we'll find it a new home. Email us at info@blc-lbc.ca for instructions on where and how to send the brailler.

If you are a blind or low vision braille reader in Canada (whether you're a beginner or a seasoned veteran), and having a Perkins Brailler would be helpful to you, email or call us to learn how you can receive one through this program.

Corporate Corner: Crawford Technologies

Braille Literacy Canada has many individual and lifetime members, but there are also organizations who participate as corporate members. Our "Corporate Corner" features gives us the opportunity to highlight the businesses, charities and other institutions which support braille in Canada. The information below has been provided by Crawford Technologies, which has been a member of BLC for more than a decade.

As communication requirements evolve and legacy systems become harder to manage, organizations face increasing pressure to deliver the right information, to the right person, in the right format, every time.

We help remove that complexity.

Crawford Technologies is an award-winning global provider of software and services that help regulated enterprises and government organizations simplify and control customer communications.

For more than 30 years, we have supported over 2,000 organizations across six continents in transforming complex communication environments into streamlined, compliant, and scalable systems. Our technology generates more than 20 billion documents annually, ensuring accuracy, accessibility, and consistency across all channels.

Through our transformation and compliance automation solutions, we enable organizations to modernize workflows, reduce risk, and meet accessibility and regulatory requirements with confidence. Our approach is simple and proven:

• Understand your environment
• Design a tailored solution
• Implement and refine workflows
• Support your continued success

The result is a communication infrastructure that works seamlessly behind the scenes, enabling our clients to meet their customers' rigorous demand for instantaneous access to transactional information such as bills and statements.

Crawford Technologies
Communicate Any Way to Anyone

Braille Access in iOS

By Jen Goulden

In iOS, iPad OS and Mac OS 26, Apple introduced new braille features in a package called Braille Access. On March 28, 2026, the Advocacy and Awareness committee of BLC hosted the first of two workshops on these new features. The second workshop took place on Saturday, June 13th. Our very own Kim Kilpatrick and Diana Brent facilitated both of the sessions. They provided an excellent overview, as well as a walk-through of the various menus and settings in the Braille Access tool.

For those who weren't able to attend the workshops but are interested in Braille Access, here are some basics to help get you started. Note that the information below is taken from the handout for the first Braille Access workshop.

If you have a Mac, or an Apple iDevice which can update to IOS26, and you have a braille display with either a QWERTY or Perkins-style keyboard, paired with and connected to your apple device, you can access this suite of features. Some examples of braille displays with Perkins style keyboards include: Brailliant, Focus, Orbit, and HIMS displays. Currently, only the Mantis display has a QWERTY Keyboard.

When any keys are combined with the Spacebar to form a command, this is referred to as a Chord. To open Braille Access from anywhere on your Apple device screen, using your braille keyboard, press dots 7-8 together (BackSpace+Enter). This is a toggle so pressing either Dots 7-8 again, or Home (h-Chord) will take you back into the last item in focus on your MAC or iDevice.

To open Braille Access from anywhere on your Mac or Apple device screen, press VO+Shift+Y. This is a toggle so pressing either VO+Shift+Y again, or Home on your device screen will take you back into the last item in focus on your MAC or iDevice screen.

By default, the main menu items in Braille Access include: Launch item, Braille Notes, BRF files, Item Chooser, Calculator, Live caption, and Clock.

I am still quite new to Braille Access, but there are two specific features which I think I will find incredibly useful. The first is that the user can write notes in Braille Access and can then copy them into another app, such as Mail. When using a braille display to enter text into an email on my phone, I have often found that the cursor bounces around, even out of the body of the message. It can also be difficult to get the cursor back to a particular letter or word in the email if, say, a correction needs to be made. Composing the message in Braille Access and then copying it into the body of the email may be a solution to this issue.

Another important feature is the ability to read BRF files while using an iDevice where that format isn't typically supported. For example, thanks to Braille Access it is now possible to open a BRF and read the contents on a braille display while using an iPhone. I'm so pleased that Apple has provided us with a new way to access braille, and I look forward to seeing what enhancements may be added in future releases.

If you'd like to learn more about Braille Access you can email us at info@blc-lbc.ca.

Accessible Greeting Cards

Editor's Note: This content was taken from the web site that appears at the end of the article. It also appears in the June 2026 issue of the ICEB newsletter.

Australia's first accessible greeting card range hits store shelves nationwide

Australians living with low vision or blindness can now share in the joy of giving and receiving greeting cards, thanks to a brand new partnership between Hallmark Cards Australia and Guide Dogs.

For centuries, exchanging greeting cards has been one of the most simple yet most meaningful ways to celebrate, connect and show we care. But for more than half a million Australians living with blindness or low vision, this cherished ritual has remained out of reach until now.

The twelve-card collection was co-developed with people living with low vision and blindness, and features:

• High-contrast colours
• Bold, modern designs
• Braille messages
• Tactile surfaces
• Clear, easy-to-read text to support inclusion

These design features help remove access barriers and means more Australians, including older people experiencing age-related vision changes, can take part in one of life's most meaningful traditions.

To read more, visit the following link: https://guidedogs.com.au/news/hallmark_launch/

Braille Art Corner: Time to travel... come fly with us on this little airplane.

Our journey today is taking us right across Canada, from coast to coast to coast. Don't forget to fasten your seat belt.

This airplane has its nose pointing to the right. If we look at the airplane from above, we see the wings on the right and left sides of the fuselage and the tail fins at the rear.

This art will fit, using landscape mode, on an 11x8 inch page. (short side rolled in, long side across the opening).

• Line 1: 8 spaces, dots 1-4-6 , dots 1-4 (letter c) 3 times, dot 3
• Line 2: 9 spaces, dots 1-6, 2 spaces, dot 4, dot 3
• Line 3: 10 spaces, dots 1-6, 2 spaces, dot 4, dot 3
• Line 4: 2 spaces, dot 6, dots 3-6 (hyphen), dot 3, 6 spaces, dots 1-6, 2 spaces, dot 4, dot 3
• Line 5: 3 spaces, dots 1-6, dot 4, dot 3, 6 spaces, dots 1-6, 2 spaces, dot 4, dot 3
• Line 6: 4 spaces, dots 1-6, dots 3-4-6, 6 dots 3-6 (hyphen) 6 times, dots 3-4-6, dots 3-6 (hyphen) 3 times, dots 3-4-6, dots 3-6 (hyphen) 8 times
• Line 7: 3 spaces, dot 5, dots 1-3 (letter k), 20 spaces, dots 1-3-5 (letter o)
• Line 8: 4 spaces, dots 3-4, dots 1-4-6 , dots 1-4 (letter c) 6 times, dots 1-4-6 , dots 1-4 (letter c) 3 times, dots 1-4-6 , dots 1-4 (letter c) 8 times
• Line 9: 3 spaces, dots 3-4, dot 6, dot 1 (letter a), 6 spaces, dots 3-4, 2 spaces, dot 6, dot 1 (letter a)
• Line 10: 2 spaces, dot 4, dots 1-4, dot 1 (letter a), 6 spaces, dots 3-4, 2 spaces, dot 6, dot 1 (letter a)
• Line 11: 10 spaces, dots 3-4, 2 spaces, dot 6, dot 1 (letter a)
• Line 12: 9 spaces, dots 3-4, 2 spaces, dot 6, dot 1 (letter a)
• Line 13: 8 spaces, dots 3-4-6, dots 3-6 (hyphen) 3 times, dot 1 (letter a)

Brailler Art Resource: our thanks to https://einfachmachbar.de

Social Media Links

Here are a few of the items we have posted on our social media platforms in recent weeks.

Here are a few of the items we have posted on our social media platforms in recent weeks.

• 06/06: BLC Celebrates #braille transcribers! We are thankful for all the work you do and for your dedication to accuracy. Whether it be a novel, a textbook, a bank statement or a tactile map, #braille transcribers are essential in making content accessible to blind children and adults. #SixDotsStrong
• Stactiles Launch Today: Unique, High Quality Tactile Stickers for a more accessible world: https://www.iamhable.com/en-am/blogs/hable-news/today-we-launch-the-new-wave-of-tactile-stickers-stactiles
• Why I Love My BrailleDoodle: https://groups.io/g/tech-vi/topic/why_i_love_my_brailledoodle/119231155
• Braille Access and Its Discontents in: The New RE:view Volume 4: Issue 1 | The New RE:view: https://the-new-review.kglmeridian.com/view/journals/nrev/4/1/article-p1.xml