![[ ICEB logo ]](iceblogo.gif)
The 4th ICEB General Assembly was held in Melbourne, Victoria,
Australia, April 6th through 10th, 2008.
Highlights of the Assembly included positive progress reports from the four
countries that have adopted Unified English Braille (UEB), and the
completion of a new braille code for the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).
The proceedings were streamed live by ACB Radio on its World Channel
(www.acbradio.org/world).
Resolutions from the Assembly will be posted on this site as soon as
final editing is complete.
As of the April 2006 Executive Committee meeting that took place in Worcester, South Africa, four countries were in the process of implementing UEB: Australia, New Zealand, Nigeria and South Africa. Other countries were in various stages of consideration. See the RNIB Position on Unified English Braille issued in May 2006 by the Royal National Institute for the Blind, of the United Kingdom.
At the 12th World Conference of the International Council for Education of People with Visual Impairment (ICEVI) in July 2006, William Jolley of Australia, ICEB's Public Relations Officer, presented a paper entitled "Unified English Braille: A Literacy Bedrock in the Digital Age". The Conference subsequently passed a resolution endorsing the adoption of UEB as an international standard.
The purpose of the International Council on English Braille is to coordinate and improve standards for braille usage for all English-speaking users of braille. The members of the ICEB are the various countries where English is spoken (and membership is open to all such countries); representatives to ICEB are named by the accepted authorities that set braille standards within those countries. The present membership includes:
The ICEB General Assembly meets every four years, the most recent having been held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, March 29 through April 2, 2004, jointly hosted by CNIB (the Canadian National Institute for the Blind) and CBA (the Canadian Braille Authority). Previous General Assemblies had been held in the USA (1999) and the UK (1995). The next General Assembly will be held in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia in April 2008 (see announcement above).
The ICEB's Executive Committee meets continuously by e-mail, in person immediately before and after each General Assembly, and at an interim meeting approximately midway between successive General Assemblies.
The ICEB Constitution was adopted May 31, 1991.
There is a discussion list, open to all who are interested, on English
Braille Codes and related topics -- with particular emphasis on matters
pertaining to ICEB's technical projects (e.g. how well UEB or other codes
work for representing technical notation, or for translation by computer).
The list is named "icebrl". To join it, create a message with the word
subscribe
in the subject and email the message to icebrl-request@freelists.org.
Please follow the instructions that you receive by e-mail thereafter.
(Alternatively, you may visit http://www.freelists.org to
subscribe, unsubscribe, set vacation mode or other options through a Web
form. An archive for icebrl is also maintained at that site.)
Each ICEB working committee also maintains a list for its deliberations; follow the information links under "ICEB Projects," above.
For further information about the ICEB, e-mail Darleen Bogart, coordinator
at the ICEB headquarters at CNIB in Canada, at darleen.bogart@cnib.ca
or info@iceb.org.
See also the current ICEB Brochure for a more complete mission statement, information on activities and sources of funding, and other ways of contacting ICEB.
Description:
A globe, marked with a grid, tilts at an angle. A keyhole is cut into its
surface.
(This symbol, defined and used with the permission of NCAM, signifies that this site is designed for accessibility.)
This page last updated on May 9, 2008.
E-mail: (info@iceb.org)