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The Educator The Educator VOLUME XXVI, ISSUE 1 JULY 2012 BRAILLE A Publication of The International Council for Education of ICEVI People with Visual Impairment PRINCIPAL OFFICERS FOUNDING INTERNATIONAL PRINCIPAL OFFICERS ORGANISATIONS PARTNER MEMBERS PRESIDENT SECOND VICE PRESIDENT American Foundation CBM Lord Low of Dalston Hans Welling for the Blind Catherine Naughton Royal National Institute of Visio Blind People Nibelungenstrasse 124 Amersfoortsestraatweg 180 Maureen Matheson 64625 Bensheim 105 Judd Street 1272 RR Houses 11 Penn Plaza, Suite 300 GERMANY London WC1H 9NE THE NETHERLANDS New York, NY 10001 [email protected] UNITED KINGDOM [email protected] USA [email protected] [email protected] Norwegian Association of the TREASURER Blind and Partially Sighted IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT (NABPS) Nandini Rawal Perkins School for the Blind Lawrence F. Campbell Arnt Holte Blind People’s Association 1, Center Street, Rockland Steven M. Rothstein P.O. Box 5900 Jagdish Patel Chowk Maine 04841 175 North Beacon Street Majorstua0308, Oslo Surdas Marg, Vastrapur USA Watertown, MA 02472 NORWAY Ahmedabad 380 015 [email protected] [email protected] USA INDIA [email protected] [email protected] Organización Nacional de FIRST VICE PRESIDENT Ciegos Españoles Prof. Jill Keeffe Chief Executive Officer Royal National Institute Ana Peláez Centre for Eye Research Australia C/ Almansa, 66, 28039 Madrid Mani, M.N.G. of Blind People University of Melbourne Lord Low of Dalston SPAIN No.3, Professors’ Colony [email protected] Department of Ophthalmology 105 Judd Street S R K Vidyalaya Post Locked Bag 8 London WC1H 9NE Coimbatore 641 020 Perkins School for the Blind East Melbourne 8002 UNITED KINGDOM Aubrey Webson AUSTRALIA Tamil Nadu, INDIA [email protected] 175 North Beacon Street [email protected] [email protected] Watertown, MA 02472 USA REGIONAL CHAIRPERSONS INTERNATIONAL [email protected] PRINCIPAL OFFICERS NON-GOVERNMENTAL Royal National Institute AFRICA NORTH AMERICA / ORGANISATIONS of Blind People Wilfred Maina CARIBBEAN Pete Osborne P.O. Box 8742 Kathleen M. Huebner Deafblind International 105 Judd Street Post Code 00300, Nairobi NCLVI Bernadette M. Kappen London WC1H 9NE KENYA College of Education and UNITED KINGDOM 999, Pelham Parkway Bronx [email protected] [email protected] Rehabilitation New York 10469 Salus University USA Sightsavers 8360 Old York Road EAST ASIA [email protected] Adelaide Addo-Fening Suwimon Udompiriyasak Elkins Park, PA 19027 Grosvenor Hall, Bolnore Road Faculty of Education USA Haywards Heath World Blind Union Suan Dusit Rajabhat University [email protected] West Sussex RH16 4BX UNITED KINGDOM 295 Ratchasima Road Maryanne Diamond [email protected] Dusit Dist., Bangkok 10300 PACIFIC 454, Glenferrie Rd. THAILAND Frances Gentle Kooyong, Vic. 3144 Union Francophone [email protected] The Renwick Centre AUSTRALIA des Aveugles Royal Institute for Deaf and [email protected] Françoise MADRAY-LESIGNE 5, rue Duroc, 75007 Paris EUROPE Blind Children Private Bag 29 International Agency FRANCE Hans Welling [email protected] Parramatta, NSW 2124 for the Prevention of Visio, Amersfoortsestraatweg 180 AUSTRALIA Blindness Visio 1272 RR Huizen [email protected] Marten de Bruine THE NETHERLANDS Christian Garms Amersfoortsestraatweg 180 Wilhelmstr. 31 [email protected] WEST ASIA 1272 RR Houses 64625 Bensheim THE NETHERLANDS Bhushan Punani LATIN AMERICA GERMANY [email protected] Blind People’s Association [email protected] Lucia Piccione Jagdish Patel Chowk Vision Australia Urquiza 2659 - 5001 Surdas Marg, Vastrapur Glenda Alexander Cordoba Ahmedabad 380 015 Visit us at : 454 Glenferrie Rd, Kooyong, Vic. 3144 ARGENTINA INDIA www.icevi.org AUSTRALIA [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Global Campaign on Education For All Children with Visual Impairment (EFA-VI) Tajikistan Palestine China Pakistan The Dominican Nepal Republic Mali Bangladesh Laos Guatemala Honduras El salvador Burkina Faso Cambodia Nicaragua Ethiopia Ghana Vietnam Sri Lanka Uganda Kenya Ecuador Rwanda Peru Papua New Guinea Malawi Fiji Bolivia Mozambique Paraguay Chile Existing Focus Countries Proposed Focus Countries Editor CONTENTS W. Aubrey Webson Director, Perkins International 1. Message from the President 02 Perkins School for the Blind 2. EFA-VI Update 03 175 North Beacon Street 3. Summary of East Asia Regional Strategy Development Meeting 05 Watertown 4. WBU-ICEVI 2012: Manual Registration From 08 MA 02472 USA 5. ICEVI Regions 14 6. General Assembly of ICEVI 15 7. News from World Blind Union 16 Associate Editor - Maryanne Diamond M.N.G. Mani 8. ON-NET: Regional Technology Network for 17 CEO, ICEVI people with Visual Impairments in Southeast Asia - Hisae Miyauchi, Eriko Takahashi & Yoshiko Toriyama 9. The Braille Cup - Ghana: Braille Essays by Students 23 Editorial Committee - Ellen Hall W. Aubrey Webson 10. Paths to Literacy: A new international and interactive website 24 Lord Low of Dalston - Charlotte Cushman M.N.G. Mani 11. Using Braille in Amerindian Languages 26 - John Hinojosa Yampi 12. Braille in Ethiopia: Changes and Challenges 29 Designing and Printing - Kassahun Yibeltal ICEVI Secretariat 13. Conservation conversation: An argument 33 No.3, Professors’ Colony for a 21st century approach to Braille music S.R.K. Vidyalaya Post - Sally Zimmermann Coimbatore – 641 020 14. Setting Up a Computerised Database in Nigeria: 36 Tamil Nadu Creating Access to Braille and Alternative Format INDIA Materials for People with Visual Impairments Phone : 91-422-2469104 - Morayo Ibironke Atinmo Fax : 91-422-2693414 15. Useful Internet Resources 43 e-mail : [email protected] - Jan Seymour-Ford Guest Editor : Pete Osborne, Royal National Institute of Blind People, 105 Judd Street, London WC1H 9NE, United Kingdom. e-mail : [email protected] Our International Partners Sightsavers A L L W E S E E I S P O S S I B I L I T Y Message from The President to see what programmes they can set up. Our Immediate Past President, Larry Campbell, has been working to put together a task force from the visual impairment sector. He has already got the Nippon Foundation on board, and the Vision Alliance is considering an integrated mission to the country on the sent my message for the latest edition of ICEVI basis that it makes most sense to pool our efforts e-News from Beijing, where I was attending the rather than all fire off independently. I would certainly IBeijing Forum organised by the China Disabled welcome this, as my first girlfriend was half Burmese Persons’ Federation. It was an excellent conference, and the Burmese cuisine is particularly good. I have which resulted in a wide-ranging declaration which was always wanted to visit the country, even though I know clearly intended to give a strong lead for the post-2015 she is not there any more! United Nations development agenda in the way that the Beijing Summit on Disability in 2000 had sounded the The Vision Alliance is a loose association of ICEVI, first international clarion call for concerted action WBU and IAPB (International Agency for the leading to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons Prevention of Blindness) which came together about with Disabilities. Of particular interest to ICEVI, it five years ago to maximise the benefit we could get contained a commitment to the “establishment and from acting together on projects in which we had a implementation of laws, policies and national action common interest, even though different organisations plans to achieve quality, inclusive education for all and might be in the lead on different projects. Two guarantee the enrollment and retention of all school representatives from each organisation meet or talk on age children with disabilities, with provision of the the phone from time to time as required. Dr Mani and necessary resources and support, and clear milestones I represent ICEVI and the chair rotates between the towards 100 per cent completion of education”. It also organisations on an annual basis. Currently I am in the called for the incorporation of “training on special chair. Areas of collaboration identified so far are the needs education and inclusive education in the pre- EFA-VI campaign, the needs of people with low vision, qualification and professional continuing education the needs of disabled people in disaster emergency curricula for training teachers”. Of even wider situations and the campaign to secure a WIPO treaty significance, it noted that the UN's Millennium that would dismantle barriers to the circulation of Development Goals made no explicit mention of copyright material in accessible form. WIPO is the disability, and called for the explicit incorporation of the World Intellectual Property Organisation, a UN agency. disability dimension in the post-2015 United Nations We are now turning our minds to how we might work development agenda, with adequate resources explicitly together to promote the needs of disabled, and in identified in annual budgets. You will be glad to know particular visually impaired, people in the post-2015 that I was able to ensure that ICEVI was to the fore in agenda when the current set of Millennium the education discussions, where we also worked in Development Goals comes to an end, which brings close collaboration with the International Disability us full circle and back to the BEIJING Declaration Alliance (IDA). again. Our East Asia Regional Chair, Dr Suwimon Excellent news to end with is the appointment of Udompiriyasak, has also been helping to put ICEVI on Gordon Brown as UN Special Envoy for Education. You the map at a UNESCO regional expert meeting in remember we had very positive talks with him towards Bangkok from 16-18 July, 2012. The focus of the the beginning of the year. Needless to say I lost no meeting was “inclusive education through quality time in writing to send our congratulations—and the teacher education in Asia-Pacific”. A particularly happy latest draft of our EFA-VI strategy, which is now very development was the good contact she made with a nearly in its final form.
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