New Braille Course
Open Day for new braille course and enrolments on 16.05.09...
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NBPC Doubles Production In Only One Academic Year!
The NBPC has more than doubled its production output in 2007/2008,
in comparison to the year before...
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NBPC exceeds Numbers of Guaranteed Braille Volumes
All staff at the NBPC have been extremely busy over the last year
and have exceeded themselves in providing more Braille volumes than
guaranteed.
More...
Open Day for new braille course and enrolments on 16.05.09, 10.30 - 12.30, St. Joseph's Centre for the Visually Impaired,
Training Suite on 3rd floor, entrance through middle gate and then follow signposts.
To read the full brochure, click here
Friday November the 21st sees our inaugural annual Vispa Fun Braille Readathon.
It is being run in association with the NCBI and the event will be held at the
conference centre of our campus (St. Joseph’s Centre for the Visually
Impaired).
The Readathon is for having fun while reading Braille and for promoting it.
All ages from Junior to Adult readers will have a chance to participate. We
also cater for readers of Grade 1 and Grade 2 Braille. We have compiled a booklist
from which you make your selection from. On the day you will be asked to read
a selected passage from that text. We will also have a celebrity guest appearance!
(For further information and application forms please contact Patricia in the
library on 01-8373635)
The NBPC has more than doubled its production output in 2007/2008, in comparison
to the year before. In 2006/2007 a total of 951 orders were fulfilled –
for 2007/2008 this figure is up to a staggering 2119 orders that have been fulfilled!
Consequently the numbers of book volumes sent out by the NBPC is reaching 10,000
for 2007/2008.
This is the first book of its kind in Ireland and is suitable for everyone interested in studying Braille music.
Written by one of Ireland’s most experienced music and Braille music teachers, Maeve Smith, this course will equip you with knowledge and understanding of Braille music. Keys, Chords, Melody and Harmony, as required by the State Examinations Commission, the Royal Irish Academy of Music and similar bodies are also covered. Just follow the thorough but easily understandable step-by-step approach.
Now available for purchase exclusively at St. Joseph’s Centre for the
Visually Impaired, at a price of €10.00.
“A Course in Braille Music” by Maeve Smith, ISBN 978-0-9559348-0-3.
Also available in Braille.
Please contact the centre on 01 - 8373635.
22.08.08
All staff at the NBPC have been extremely busy over the last year and have exceeded
themselves in providing more Braille volumes than guaranteed.
Results for all orders received by the 15th November 2007:
100% of Braille guarantees (minimum of 3 volumes) have been met, with 85% delivered in all volumes and more than 3 vols. delivered for 12 %.
Large Print: 91% of all guarantees met, with 88% of these delivered in all volumes. 7% will be slightly delayed, and 1% of original books for transcriptions not yet published.
Text files: 93% of all guarantees met AND full text-file already delivered, with 7% delays.
Results for all orders received by the 15Th January 2008:
100% of Braille guarantees have been fully met and exceeded, with 79% delivered in all volumes, and 21% delivered in at least 3 volumes.
LP: 95% of all guarantees met (with 92% fully delivered, and 3% delivered with a minimum of 1 volume). 5% are delayed.
Text files: 98% of all guarantees delivered and exceeded due to 98% delivered with full text.
Please note that overall highly increased production figures for the academic
year 2007/2008 (including figures for all orders) will be available shortly
and will be posted here.
St. Joseph’s / NBPC acknowledge mention of the NBPC’s services in the recently published report “Seeing Ahead”, as launched by AHEAD on 19.06.08.
Our services strongly promote and support Braille literacy and the NBPC is the only National Irish Agency to provide transcriptions of textbooks in Braille and other alternative formats accessible by children with a visual impairment.
The NBPC was set up in 2000, producing 32 transcriptions for 17 clients. Between 2006 and 2008 the centre has experienced an unprecedented increase in client numbers, now providing services to 354 clients and producing 951 transcriptions in 06/07 and so far 1333 in 07/08.
Unfortunately, the authors of the report did not revisit the NBPC after an initial short visit on 18.09.06 and did not verify, double-check or update any information given to them on that only occasion by NBPC. There was also no attempt made to clarify statements other sources related to them.
This leads to wrong and misleading statements within the report, as follows:
• The wrong assumption that the NBPC would only deliver a quarter or a
half of a book to a student (in total). This is untrue.
• All deductions made in the report which are based on this wrong assumption.
• A “coordinated or systematic approach” is repeatedly called
for in the report, unfortunately without any indication what this approach might
look like. The NBPC has a good working relationship with colleagues from other
service providers, and understands that competencies are spread in such a way
that services are not being duplicated and that service users can receive the
best spread of products across agencies.
• Large print is mentioned only once in the report and there is also no
consideration given to the actual role text files / e-files / Daisy can play
in conjunction with Braille. Seeing that of the currently 354 clients of the
NBPC, about 300 are large print users and 30 braille users, this is astonishing,
as the report’s title suggests that it would report on the situation of
Blind AND Vision Impaired Students.
While we fully appreciate and support scientific and verifiable research in the area of Braille literacy, we have to regrettably observe that the high standards we follow in our day-to-day work have not been applied to the study, which wrongly reports on our work.
Posted July 2008
The NBPC’s Braille Awareness Day on 27.05.08 attracted a lot of attention and fun was had by all. Congratulations to our Braille quiz winners in the different categories. If you want to know more about the day, please listen to the NBPC’s manager being interviewed on Insight Radio here.
Please click here to download audio file with interview (size: 6mb).
Today, 30th May 2008, NCBI and St Joseph’s Centre for the Visually Impaired announced they are promoting the European Braille Essay Contest run by the European Blind Union on behalf of Onkyo Co. Ltd. and Tenji Mainichi. The aim of the contest is to promote the use of braille as a key to blind people’s access to information and to their social inclusion.
The contest theme will be “Braille literacy changes my way of life”.
Through personal experience, candidates will explain how braille improves their
daily lives. Authors are invited to give the theme their own imaginative interpretation.
The essay should not exceed
1000 words.
Candidates should send their works to NCBI’s Head Office, Whitworth Road, Drumcondra Dublin 9 or the National Braille Production Centre at St Joseph’s Grace Park Road, Drumcondra, Dublin 9, Ireland by 9th June.
The competition is open to all ages and 5 essays will be selected by NCBI and St Joseph’s to represent Ireland in the contest. The winners will then go into the hat for final consideration by the EBU. The winners will be announced in September.
The prize for each category will be:
• The best Otsuki prize (First Prize) : 2,000 US dollars
• Excellent Works prize (senior category) : 1,000 US dollars
• Excellent Works prize (junior category) : 1,000 US dollars
• Two Fine Works prizes (senior category) : 500 US dollars each
• Two Fine Works prizes (junior category) : 500 US dollars each
Ends
For further information, please contact Lina Kouzi on 01 864 2266 or Lina.kouzi@ncbi.ie or Ilka Staglin on 01 837 3635 or istaglin@braille.ie
Are hosting a Braille Awareness Day on Tuesday, 27.05.08:
Hands-on Braille, Braille games, Info on Braille, Quiz & lots of fun to
be had!
This is an event within Dublin Volunteering Week.
At Library: Open doors for all from 10.30 – 3.30 – have a look
at the new refurbished library!
At NBPC: Volunteer Appreciation Breakfast for all of St. Joseph’s volunteers
from 10.30 – 12.30.
Open doors for all after that
The NBPC can now offer textbooks in DAISY format in addition to Braille, large print and electronic files. Orders should specify whether the book will be used for audio only or audio-visual. Please contact the NBPC prior to placing your order. Also check the FAQ Page for further details. What is a DAISY book?
As usual, all staff at the NBPC are currently working hard in order to provide as many clients as possible with their textbooks by the beginning of the school year 2006/2007. The 2 summer months are the centre's main production time and about a third of all volumes are produced during these months. If you have any queries, please contact us at normal office hours.
The library at St. Joseph's consists of a children's library and a reference library. It is open to both the public and professionals. For the NBPC clients the library is of interest for leisure reading - a lot of books are available in a range of formats. For parents and professionals, the reference library provides information on many aspects of visual impairment. Please contact the library co-ordinator, Joan Kelly, on 01-8373635 for further information. Please note that the library will be closed from 03.08.06 - 24.08.06.
The NBPC was represented at St. Joseph's 3 information stands at this year's successful "Seeing Better Ireland" (www.seeingbetterireland.org) Exhibition. This exhibition was jointly organised by St. Joseph's and the Blind Centre Belfast.
Have you ever heard of MOON? Moon is a tactile reading and writing system which was first introduced in England in the mid-nineteenth century and was used before Braille became the prevalent method from 1870 onwards. The NBPC has set up a working group to explore the possibilities and limitations of this medium for our clients. If you are interested in learning more about Moon, please refer to the UK's Moon Forum's website on www.moonliteracy.org.uk
The National Braille Production Centre was represented at the AGM of VICS, the Visually Impaired Computer Users' Society in October 2005. During the day, our IT co-ordinator Aisling Lowe was interviewed on the subject of assistive technology that we use.
This is also a reminder to everyone placing orders with the NBPC to please
submit all orders for September 2006 as soon as possible, if you have not already
done so.
Please also consult our current book catalogue prior to placing orders to check
on the availability of titles.
Visit the book catalogue section.
Please note that if a book is available in a format different to the one you
require, your order does not constitute a reprint. As the main editing and formatting
work will need to be applied to transfer the title to the format you require,
your order will be treated as a new order.
The NBPC has received an exceptional amount of late book orders for the current school year. We would like to kindly remind everyone who is placing orders to please keep timeframes for transcriptions in mind. If you have any questions relating to that, please contact the centre.
In the academic year 2004/2005 the NBPC fulfilled 266 book orders, that's nearly 100 more than in the previous academic year (269). The overall output of volumes of books was a staggering 2400!
The National Braille Production Centre has implemented the rules of the new
braille code (British Braille 2004) in all transcriptions that have been started
from May 2005 onwards. Clients will find a note on the title page advising them
about this in each single volume.
This means that our clients have the advantage of familiarising themselves with
the changes in textbooks that are used every day and well on time to co-incide
with the official introduction of the code at the end of August 2005.
Books which were already part-transcribed in May 2005 will be completed following
the older rules, so that each transcription is consistent throughout all the
volumes.
www.braille.ie was officially launched on St. Joseph’s Open day on 30.05.05
by Ilka Stäglin, the manager of the NBPC.
Feedback on the new site has been very positive so far, especially in terms
of accessibility. The centre is currently in the process of setting up a system
to issue clients with passwords and user names to access all pages of this new
site. Many thanks to everyone for comments, hints and tips!
The NBPC was also favourably mentioned by other speakers on the open day, including
An Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Kent Lundkvist, Sweden, (on behalf of the Comenius
I project).
A new edition of the "British Braille" rule manual for braille has been published by the Braille Authority of the United Kingdom. British Braille 2004 has been available since May 2005 and all the changes are incorporated. The main changes are the introduction of a new sign for the oblique stroke (dots 456, 34, now a two-cell sign), the confirmation of a few signs that were widely used already (i.e. Euro dots 4, 15) and the application of braille computer code to web addresses and e-mail addresses. Some changes affect the use of signs (no apostrophe needed in "1930s" for example) and the use of contractions (the contraction "one" can now be used in the ending "-oney"). Generally speaking, the changes respond to the use of capitalised braille and bring in line former exceptions to rules. All details can be obtained from either the Braille Authority's website (www.bauk.org.uk) or indeed from the new "British Braille" edition, for sale by the Royal National Institute for the Blind.
St Joseph's School for the Visually Impaired held an Open day on Monday 30th May 2005.
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