Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for receiving us this morning.
I imagine you are not very familiar with braille, though you are most likely familiar with the name. This year, we are celebrating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Louis Braille. Without going into details, I will give you an overview of what braille is so that you can ask appropriate questions when there is something you don't understand.
Braille is not a language, but a method for reading and writing. That means we would take an English printed text, and transcribe it into English braille. The same thing is done on the French side.
I would like to say a few words about the history of braille, because I don't know whether you are familiar with it. In previous years, braille was transcribed in different ways in French-speaking countries. Transcription rules and standards varied from country to country. Thus, a project to standardize braille has been initiated. That standardization project targets French-speaking Quebec, France, Switzerland, Belgium and even Africa. The goal of the standardization—that is, always transcribing French braille in the same way, regardless of the country of origin of the printed text—is praiseworthy. The goal of standardizing braille is praiseworthy indeed.
Please allow me to take a brief moment to tell you something about myself, because what I do will become clear as I speak. I am a teacher. I am now retired from teaching in Quebec, where I taught blind children. All my life, I have used braille as a teaching method. Personally, I am strongly opposed to the standardization. I will give you some of the reasons for my position.
First of all, standardization means making the transcription similar, regardless of where it is done. People believe that, once braille has become standardized, francophone countries will be able to exchange manuals and books. That's true, they will indeed be able to exchange books, novels. France will in fact be able to transcribe some books and Quebec others, and they will then be able to exchange those books with no problem at all.
However, that will not work in schools. Schools will not be able to exchange textbooks and school manuals, for a very simple reason—there are no common educational programs in France and Quebec. France and Quebec will be able to exchange novels, but certainly not textbooks. But it is in schools that children need to do that exchange, and they particularly need access to textbooks and manuals.
I've told you my position. Now, let me explain how things are. I would like to say a few words about the new code, a copy of which I have submitted to Ms. Dumas. I will ask you for a special permission to do something that will help you. I would like to ask for special permission to table a document that is only in French. It is part of the Code braille français uniformisé pour la transcription des textes imprimés. I will certainly not have the authority to translate this into English. It's as if I were tabling a copy of a French grammar book, and you asked me for an English copy of the French grammar book—it could not be translated. So I am asking the chair of the committee: may I table the first 20 or so pages of the Code braille français uniformisé , the standardized French braille code?