EBU will run the European strand of the 11th World Braille Essay Contest in 2017. The contest was initiated in 2007 to promote the use of braille all over the world and has since been funded by Onkyo Corporation and by The Braille Mainichi.
There are a variety of themes so that participants can address the importance of braille from several angles. The list is not exhaustive, authors may choose to give all themes their own imaginative interpretation and use formats different from telling one’s life story, such as a letter, a poem, or an interview.
The suggested themes are:
- “The role of braille in furthering visually impaired people’s participation in political, economic, cultural, educational social and family life”. Braille in the age of technology, using braille at all ages, braille and voting, are but a few examples of how this theme may be addressed.
- “Life with braille – we encourage teachers, transcribers, those who use braille in any way or who would like to use it, to write about the role of braille”. We encourage factual description of potential innovation, products and ideas for promoting braille throughout Europe.
Amusing stories about Braille
- “The future of Braille”
- “Advantages and disadvantages of braille compared with using speech synthesizers and recorded books and documents”
- “Braille and music”
- “Braille and access to tourism”
General conditions
All braille users, including sighted users of braille, residing in an EBU country and Israel may take part in the contest regardless of age.
Repeated participation in consecutive years shall be allowed, except for the first prize winner who shall be prevented from entering the competition for 3 years.
Professional writers, i.e. persons who regularly publish on the open media market for money. May not take part in the contest.
Essays shall be submitted in digital format.
Participants may not submit more than one essay.
Essays submitted in a given year may not be submitted to the following contests.
Essays shall be in English or in the author’s national language.
Essays in the national language shall not exceed 1000 words (plus a 10% tolerance).
Essays shall carry the following mentions, which should be inserted at the top of essays, before the title:
- Name, surname, gender and age of participant,
- Country,
- Name of the EBU national member processing the entry,
- Number of words in the national language
Copyright
By taking part in the contest,
Authors shall assign automatically and exclusively to EBU worldwide all rights including copyright, and EBU may assign or license these rights.
Authors shall allow EBU to use their name and their essays in publicity and for information purposes as EBU may require.
As copyright holder, EBU may give permission to the authors and to their national members to make use of the essays as they see fit.
Onkyo winners shall provide EBU with their photographs and shall entitle EBU to reproduce, adapt, edit and publish their photographs on any media, including web and print.
Deadline
Submissions should be sent by the 19th of May to: Library@ncbi.ie
Prizes
- The best Otsuki prize (First Prize): 2,000 US dollars.
- Excellent Works prize:
– Junior category (up to 25): 1,000 US dollars.
– Senior category (over 25): 1,000 US dollars.
- Fine Works prizes:
– Junior category (2 prizes): 500 US dollars each.
– Senior category (2 prizes): 500 US dollars each.