European Braille Meet-Up
4 – 6 December 2026 in Germany (Langenselbold, close to Frankfurt)
Meet with other braille users and experts all over Europe, exchange about braille practice and braille devices and have fun with braille.
Host: European Blind Union (EBU) and German Federation of the Blind and Partially Sighted (DBSV)
Venue: Konferenzhotel Ysenburger Hof
Gelnhäuser Strasse 5, 63505 Langenselbold
www.ysenburgerhof.de
(1 hour by train from Frankfurt airport, 30 minutes from Frankfurt central station; we will try to help you at travelling at the airport and Frankfurt central station)
Times:
Welcome: Friday, 4 December 2026 15:00 CET
Official opening: Friday, 4 December 2026 19:30 CET
End: 6 December 2026 12:30 CET (followed by lunch)
Language: English
Registration fee including accommodation and meals: 150 €
(The same fee applies to accompanying persons.)
maximum 90 participants
Please register by 15 November 2026. Accompanying persons, please register separately.
Please use the registration form
You are invited:
- present practices, methods and devices of learning and using braille in the Show & Tell session.
- present your knowledge in a “speed presentation” of 15 minutes
- as producer of braille devices present new products
- read out braille in your language
- or simply come along take part
Website: www.livingbraille.eu/meetup
Contact person for questions: Reiner Delgado, r.delgado@dbsv.org
Programme
Friday 4 December
15:00 – 18:00: welcome and braille open space
– Braille-Art: creating images out of braille patterns
– Braille Bar I
participants may ask and discuss any question they might have about the use of braille displays with experts
18:00 – 19:30: dinner
19:30 – 21:00: official opening of Braille Meet-Up
– greetings/keynote
– icebreaker games
– A fun introduction in braille music notation
Saturday, 5 December
9:00 – 10:30: teaching braille
– tactile training with Punktum, Reiner Delgado (German Federation of the Blind and Partially Sighted)
– braille literacy for blind children, Judit Gombas (ELTE Bárczi Gusztáv Faculty of Special Needs Education, Hungary)
– teaching braille to adults Ana Gonzalez Arean (Organisación de Ciegos Espanoles)
10:30 – 11:00: coffee break
11:00 – 12:30: multiline and graphic braille displays
– overview on the current market
– use cases
– hands-on experience with devices
Matthew Horspool and Dave Williams (Braillists Foundation, UK), Jesse Wienholts, Netherlands)
12:30 – 13:30: lunch
13:30 – 15:30: Show & Tell
participants are invited to show devices or usecases of teaching and using braille; please indicate on the registration form what you like to present; e.g.
– your braille display
– tools for writing braille
– material and methods for teaching braille
– creating braille images
15:30 – 16:00: coffee break
16:00 – 17:30: speed presentations I (15 minutes each)
please indicate on the registration form, if you want to present something
– what United English Braille means (Matthew Horspool)
– tactile lettering – why do we need standards like EN18156 (Bart Simons, Dutsh Braille Authority))
– What is the new E-Braille format?, James Bowden (RNIB, UK)
17:30 – 18:30: Braille Bar II
participants may ask and discuss any question they might have about the use of braille displays with experts
18:30 – 20:00: dinner
20:15 – 21:30: cultural event
reading out from braille the fairytale Ciderella in different languages
Please indicate in he registration form, if you want o read.
Sunday, 6 December
9:00 – 10:30: speed presentations II (15 minutes each)
please indicate on the registration form, if you want to present something
10:30 – 11:00: coffee break
11:00 – 12:30: Br-AI-lle – what’s going on with braille and artificial intelligence?
How AI can improve braille currently and in the future
Oleg Shevkun (Germany)
12:30 – 13:00: closing of meet-up
13:00: lunch