September 2009 was our target date for Grade I braille. With respect to Grade II braille, the committee of experts has already met. At the beginning of January, I had the opportunity to be involved in celebrations marking the 200th anniversary of the birth of Louis Braille, in Paris. It was a chance for us to meet with our French cousins and to initiate some discussions on Grade II braille. Very quickly, we came to a consensus on several things. Perhaps I am a consummate optimist, or perhaps it's just my personality. I expect that progress will made more quickly on the question of Grade II braille than it will for Grade I braille. The trend is toward fewer abbreviations. So then, the overall number of abbreviations, of which there are currently 900, could be reduced.
In addition, we would like to target abbreviations according to the words that appear most often in a document. A woman by the name of Ms. Fontaine did a doctoral thesis which put us on to this very interesting approach. The words that appear most often in a document are the ones that perhaps should be abbreviated. This is more or less the basic premise that will be guiding our work. The members of the Francophonie seemed to be intrigued with this approach. In my opinion, we should see some progress fairly quickly on the issue of Grade II braille.