Preparing a church bulletin for Braille

Rev. Rick Roderick, Consultant for Visual Disabilities

Accessibility means much more than just accessible entrances and restrooms. It means being welcoming to people of all ability levels and individual differences. Providing Braille bulletins to those who can benefit is one way of carrying out this mission. In order to provide this service, a church must find a competent Braille transcriber. This person may be either blind or sighted. In my case, I’m able to produce my own Braille from copy produced in Microsoft Word.  In order to facilitate the production of Braille bulletins, keep the following in mind:

• Braille is most easily produced from a word processor document, not a desktop publishing application. If it’s produced in a program such as Microsoft Publisher, it will be converted to a word processor file. These converted documents can have special problems, such as extraneous carriage returns or missing returns. Centering is also not preserved. These need to be corrected before transcription.
• Some Braille translators, such as Duxbury, use Microsoft Word styles. In Word, go to Format and choose Styles. Check the radio button for all styles. The following are supported:
  
  Heading level:  For parts of a service
  List:  For the events in an order of worship, responsive readings and hymns
  Body text or normal:  For narratives and announcements
• Avoid producing an entire bulletin in a boldface font.  This can add extraneous characters in Braille.
• Announcements for visitors should be included in the first bulletin but can be left out if the same people are always using them. For newcomers, bulletins should be available if notice of their arrival is given. An announce­ment can be put in the bulletin or newsletter to this effect:  “Braille bulletins are available by request. Please notify the church office on the Friday before you plan to attend.”
• Congregational responses should be written with words such as “Leader,” “People” and “all.” The use of italics is less clear. All caps puts two symbols before each word and is more difficult to read.
• Hymns can be produced in a number of ways. Generally, only words are provided.  Producing Braille music is more problematic. When in doubt, make sure that lines are separated by carriage returns and that blank lines separate stanzas. Unless the hymn contains only one verse, always number verses.  When writing hymn titles for Braille, don’t use both italics and quotes. Using two methods can take up more room. When writing hymn numbers, don’t put in the number sign. It’s redundant in Braille because a number sign is put before any number. Hymn #252 would read Hymn ##252. Well-known refrains can be stated only once, usually after the first verse. If less familiar refrains are used, repeat them after each verse.
  
  The Presbyterian Hymnal is available in 19 volumes from the National Braille Association in Rochester, New York. Sing the Faith is not available at this time.
  
  If hymns are used often, they can be Brailled separately and included in bulletins as needed. One way to do this is to use the numbers, e.g. 123.doc for that number in the Hymnal. Hymnal and Sing the Faith selections are numbered differently, so they can be kept in one directory.
• Biblical references are written with a number sign, not a colon, e.g. John 3#16 and Psalm 100#1-5.
• I have Brailled some bulletins that didn’t include announcements. In my opinion, this isn’t a good practice. Part of making people feel welcome is to encourage them to participate in activities. The announcements are a catalyst to this process.
  
  Although the number of people who need Braille bulletins is relatively small, it can make much greater participation possible for those who use them. It will make many persons who are blind feel part of the worshiping community, instead of finding out about church events at the last minute, if at all. By follow­ing a few simple rules, you can make production very easy for a transcriber or someone who’s blind who has a Braille printer or note-taking device.