American Printing House for the Blind Annual Meeting 2018

Last week I attended the Annual Meeting of the American Printing House for the Blind. PRCVI has makes many APH products available to our TSVI colleagues in BC through the library catalogue. It is always great to see what new items are on the horizon and to provide feedback to APH on existing products as well as product ideas for development. Some of the new products on the horizon of note are:

• Building on Patterns Pre-Kindergarten. While PRCVI does not serve the preschool population in BC, BOP Pre-K could be used with K-3 students who require a more foundational approach to literacy instruction in the early elementary years. 
• I-M-ABLE Kit. A resource companion to the wildly popular I-M-ABLE book, this kit features a number of the core resources that are outlined in the I-M-ABLE text.

I attended a session on APH's new braille translation software - BrailleBlaster. BrailleBlaster is available as a free download and is fully UEB compatible. There are a number of features supporting the development of math/technical content, including the ability to generate math worksheets using templates. One of the features that stood out for me was the ability to generate spelling lists automatically with both the contracted and uncontracted word. BrailleBlaster automatically detects when a word in a spelling word list has a contraction(s) and inserts the uncontracted version next to the contracted one in the list. Check it out! If there is interest, PRCVI can explore the possibility of training through our friends at APH. 

The APH Annual Meeting hosts the induction ceremony for the Hall of Fame of Leaders and Legends of the Blindness Field. This year's inductees are Dr. Susan Spungin and Frank H. Hall. Many will recognize Dr. Spungin from her career of service as a researcher and leader at the American Foundation for the Blind. Both extremely well-deserving inductees!