News

If you are registered for our Braille for Beginners On Demand course, our next Office Hours session will take place on Tuesday at 7:30 PM. Please look out for a reminder email containing your unique joining link. If you have not received it by Tuesday lunchtime, please write to [email protected] for assistance.

If you are new to braille and not registered for Braille for Beginners, please consider signning up at www.braillists.org/beginners.

For people not following Braille for Beginners, your next session will be next Tuesday. Please see next week’s Newsletter for more information.

A FREE online webinar via Teams.

Learning braille can open up a whole world of opportunities, information and pleasure – it’s all about access.  However, before you start the business of learning the intricacies of all those dots it helps to refine gross and fine motor skills as well as being able to use a light touch.  These don’t just happen of their own accord or overnight, especially if you are learning braille because of sight loss – as a teenager, say.  This session will give ideas linked to foundational braille (pre braille) and how to make learning these skills fun and incidental.

We welcome questions in advance but there will also be the opportunity to ask questions throughout, via the ‘Chat’ function of Teams.

Bookings will close on Friday 27 February and the Teams Link will be sent to delegates on Monday 2 March.

Find out more and register

The Round Table conference program is now available on the conference website, and the Round Table Executive and Program Committee are delighted to share it with you for the 2026 Round Table on Information Access for People with Print Disabilities Inc. Annual Conference (#roundtable2026).

The 2026 conference will explore how innovation and collaboration can open doors to greater independence and inclusion for people with print disabilities. Together, we’ll look at practical ways to ensure everyone has the tools, resources and opportunities they need to access information on equal terms, so that information access is not only a recognised right, but a lived reality for all.

Don’t miss our keynote speakers:

• Jonathan Craig, Understanding the Cohort: What We Know about the Prevalence of Blindness and Low Vision in Australia.
• Dr Frances Gentle, More Braille: More Empowerment – A Global Campaign for Braille Literacy.
• Dr Cary Supalo, The progress in STEM globally.

And our feature speakers:

• Aasha Rose, Braille: More than just literacy, it’s dignity, identity and freedom.
• Dagmar Reinhart, Accessibility of Museums for BLV: International Initiatives and Guidelines.

Dates

• Australian Braille Authority (ABA) Annual Meeting – Saturday, 23 May 2026.
• Conference, – Sunday, 24 May to Tuesday, 26 May 2026.

Registrations – Early Bird Registrations are open and close on Friday, 28 February 2026

To register, please complete the on-line delegate registration form. Take advantage of our early-bird registration, available until Friday, 28 February 2026. After this date, standard registration fees will apply.

Conference Updates

Conference updates will be posted on the Round Table conference website and Round Table mailing list.

The Tammy Axelsen Lifetime Achievement Award

A gentle reminder, nominations for this annual award are open. The nomination form and further details can be found on our website by following this link: Tammy Axelsen Lifetime Achievement Award

Listen on the Accessible World website

Watch on YouTube

RNIB is delighted to announce the 2025-26 season of the Gardner’s Trust Braille Music Literacy Awards. Administered by the RNIB, these awards are dedicated to assessing the reading, understanding, and performance of Braille music. They provide music Braillists with a valuable opportunity to receive expert feedback on their specialist skills and to demonstrate their musical independence.

The awards are open to Braillists of all ages, as previous age restrictions have been removed. Candidates are also permitted to retake levels they have previously attempted.

There are five levels of assessment available. All participants will receive a detailed report and a certificate of entry. Outstanding entrants at each level who meet the required standard will be awarded a prize, ranging from £10 for Level 1 to £50 for Level 5.

Test dates and application deadline

Tests will take place between the 2^nd of February and 30^th of April 2026. You can enter an application at any point up to the 16^th of March 2026.

Feedback and certificates will be issued in June 2026, at which time we will also announce the prize winners. Candidates may choose to take the exams either in person at a location of their choice (subject to examiner availability) or online.

New for 2026

We’ve made some small changes to the higher-level tests to make them fairer for candidates, such as extending the practice time for some tests. You can read more about the specific changes in the downloadable Infopack on the RNIB’s website. Look for the document called “GTLA Updated Guidelines 2025-26”.

We have also included a new guide “What to expect from an online GTLA test” to help prepare candidates who are sitting the test via Teams or Zoom.

Further information

Specimen tests, along with general regulations and requirements in both Braille and print, can be obtained from the RNIB.

For more information, please visit: Gardner’s Trust Braille Music Literacy Awards | RNIB.

To request the information pack and application form, please contact us at: [email protected]

A message from the Braille Working Group of the European Blind Union.

Dear all,

Some European organisations plan to initiate a project about the quality of tactile graphics. We think that there can be done a lot to improve such graphics used in museums and education.

To support our application to EU we ask you to answer some questions. This will help us a lot.

Find our questionnaire here.

Thank you so much for your support!

Join Rob and Steve for a World Braille Day special where “bumpy paper” takes the spotlight. They’re joined by Braille champions Shawn Marsolais, Jen Jesso, and Riane LaPaire to celebrate why Braille is literacy and to ask why, in 2026, access to it is still uneven.

The panel shares real‑world stories of how Braille powers education, work, and independence, and digs into both the wins and the roadblocks: creative use of Braille tech and tactile graphics, growing World Braille Day resources and library programs, but also shortages of TVIs and transcribers, funding gaps, misconceptions about how technology can replace braille, and the myth that “audio is enough.”

Listen on the AT Banter Website

A new Blind-first and a11y-first audio-based game aimed at increasing typing skills and #Braille literacy. Multiple game and input modes, fun sounds, and you earn tickets with each round that you can use to get silly prizes when you cash out at the Prize Counter! Practice your Perkins typing with the home-row setting and your grade 2 symbols and word signs. I’m still iterating, but enjoy this initial release. Go whack some moles!

Claire Amoroso writes: “For any French speakers, an interesting talk about Braille from a historical and cultural perspective.”

Watch on YouTube