Braille Essay Competition Announced

Release Date: May 30th, 2008

NCBI and St Joseph’s Centre for the Visually Impaired have announced they are promoting the European Braille Essay Contest run by the European Blind Union on behalf of Onkyo Co. Ltd. and Tenji Mainichi. The aim of the contest is to promote the use of braille as a key to blind people’s access to information and to their social inclusion.

The contest theme will be “Braille literacy changes my way of life”. Through personal experience, candidates will explain how braille improves their daily lives. Authors are invited to give the theme their own imaginative interpretation. The essay should not exceed
1000 words.

Candidates should send their works to NCBI’s Head Office, Whitworth Road, Drumcondra Dublin 9 or the National Braille Production Centre at St Joseph’s Grace Park Road, Drumcondra, Dublin 9, Ireland by 9th June.

The competition is open to all ages and 5 essays will be selected by NCBI and St Joseph’s to represent Ireland in the contest. The winners will then go into the hat for final consideration by the EBU. The winners will be announced in September.

The prize for each category will be:

• The best Otsuki prize (First Prize) : 2,000 US dollars

• Excellent Works prize (senior category) : 1,000 US dollars

• Excellent Works prize (junior category) : 1,000 US dollars

• Two Fine Works prizes (senior category) : 500 US dollars each

• Two Fine Works prizes (junior category) : 500 US dollars each

Ends

For further information, please contact Lina Kouzi on 01 864 2266 or Lina.kouzi@ncbi.ie or Ilka Staglin on 01 837 3635 or istaglin@braille.ie