Updated as of October 8, 2024.
About the Contest
“Purpose: to promote the joy of reading for pleasure; to promote pride in Braille as a viable literacy medium equal to print; and to demonstrate the importance of independent reading in the development of Braille literacy skills.
Contestants compete against their same-grade peers nationwide to read for the most minutes during the reading period.” Braille Readers Are Leaders web page.
2024 Contest Deadline has passed
- Each year, this contest runs from December through January.
Eligibility
- Blind and low-vision Braille-reading students and adults AND teachers of blind students in our new teachers’ contest
- Registration closed, but was available at the 2023-2024 BRAL Contest online registration portal.
- “As always, the American Action Fund does not want to exclude any interested contest participant who cannot use Beanstack or who does not have access to the internet. Please contact BrailleReadingContest@actionfund.org or call 410-659-9315 and we will be happy to assist you.” Braille Readers Are Leaders web page.
Prizes
- All contest participants will receive a Braille Readers Are Leaders t-shirt.
- This shirt will be mailed as soon as possible after the participant registers for the contest and completes the first activity, which is to give us your mailing address!! So, if a participant reads for 20 minutes on December 4 and completes the first activity, their t-shirt will be mailed to them as soon as December 6.
- If however, participants wait until the end of the contest to register, complete their activity, and log all of their minutes at once, they will not receive a t-shirt or any other prizes they may have won until we send out all of the prizes in mid-February.
- In other words, register as soon as registration opens, have fun with the activities, and start logging minutes as soon as you can!
- Prizes will be awarded based on number of minutes read.
- The more a participant reads, the more prizes they will earn!
- When participants log minutes each day as they read, they will receive emails with fun badges they have earned in recognition of their efforts.
- Participants will also be notified when the reading milestone they have reached also has a prize attached to it.
- In addition to the prizes earned based on minutes read, the participant who read the most number of minutes in a particular grade category will win a cash prize.
Categories
- Grades K-1
- Grades 2-3
- Grades 4-5
- Grades 6-8 (middle school)
- Grades 9-12 (high school)
- Adult: Novice
- Adult: Intermediate
- Adult: Expert
- Teacher of Blind Students
Rules
- Contestants must meet the eligibility criteria.
- All materials must be read between contest-specified dates (for the 2023-2024 contest, those dates were December 4, 2023, and January 22, 2024).
- (For students) Registration form must have the name and contact information of a parent, guardian, or teacher. The parent/guardian/teacher is responsible for:
- Registering the student for the contest.
- Assisting the student in finding suitable extracurricular Braille books and other materials to read for the contest.
- Verifying the student read the Braille material listed, and that the material was read between the beginning and ending dates of the contest.
- Submitting the reading log in an accurate, complete, and timely fashion.
- Not meeting the required dates for registration or logging minutes will disqualify a contestant.
- All decisions of the judges are final.
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.