Updated as of October 8, 2024.
Braille Challenge 2025
Year after year, the Braille Challenge provides braille readers an opportunity to hone their braille and tactile graphics reading skills. The Braille Institute’s Braille Challenge web page is still updating with additional 2025 information, but the information below should help participants prepare for the contest in the meantime.
In-person competition
For many years, the Maryland School for the Blind has hosted a regional Braille Challenge contest, Maryland Braille Challenge. In 2024, this event was held on February 10. The theme was a LEGO theme: We Build Our Future with Braille!
The date for the 2025 Maryland Braille Challenge has not yet been set, but the event’s long-time, talented, and dedicated coordinator, Jacqueline Otwell, remains in this important role. Her contact information, listed at the above website, is jacquelineo@mdschblind.org and (443) 889-3899.
Individual teacher-proctored competition
Of course, not everyone who wants to participate can attend. Illness, transportation issues, and other obstacles can keep great students from engaging in the Braille Challenge contest. But that’s not a problem!
You can enter the 2025 Braille Challenge contest without attending the Maryland Braille Challenge. The Braille Institute (the agency that coordinates the Braille Challenge nationwide) offers INDIVIDUAL REGISTRATIONS. Your teacher of blind/low vision students (TVI) can complete the Braille Challenge Preliminary Contest Request Form for Teachers (when it becomes available), and the Braille Institute will send the tests to your school for your teacher to administer to you.
Please note: you may NOT participate in more than one regional challenge event, and you may not participate in both the individual competition and any regional challenge.
If you want to take advantage of this opportunity, please contact your TVI as soon as possible (and share the Braille Challenge Teacher Information page). The Braille Challenge Individual Registration deadline is usually March 1 of the contest year.
Preparing for the competition
Contest Age Groups
- Apprentice (1st and 2nd grades)
- Freshman (3rd and 4th grades)
- Sophomore (5th and 6th grades)
- Junior Varsity (7th, 8th and 9th grades)
- Varsity (10th, 11th and 12th grades)
To prepare for the contest, you might want to download some of the sample contest files 2021 through 2023 Braille Challenge Sample Contests download page.
More Braille Challenge information
Participant Information (for Students and Parents)
- Usually, you do not need to be a resident of the state in which you enter a regional competition
- HOWEVER, each participant may only engage in the preliminary competition ONCE per year.
Bridges Technical Assistance Center
We at the Bridges Technical Assistance Center LOVE the Braille Challenge! Our Program Coordinator, Chris Nusbaum, has won the Maryland Regional and has competed on the national level multiple times, and, year after year, our Director, Carlton Anne Cook Walker, has supported and cheered on her students in Maryland and other regional contests!
Don’t hesitate to reach out to us!
Contact the Bridges Helpdesk for More Information
Email: Helpdesk@imagemd.org
Text: Send to: (410) 357-1546
Voice mail: Call (410) 357-1546, leave a voice mail message, and we will return your call
This unique project is being coordinated through The IMAGE Center of Maryland, a center for independent living in Towson, and it is funded by a grant from the Maryland Department of Education Division of Special Education/Early Intervention Services.