About the NFB Info About Vision Loss For...Members Resources Products and Technology Publications

The Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award

Letter of Recommendation Form
Thank you for your support of the Dr. Jacob Bolotin Awards program.
Please complete the form below to submit your letter of recommendation in support of the award nominee. Recommendations cannot exceed 800 words. You will not be able to submit your recommendation if the maximum word count exceeds 800 words.
Please note that recommendations should come from someone other than the person who nominated the candidate. Please note that required fields on this form are indicated by an asterisk (*).

* Nominee Name:
* Your First Name:
* Your Last Name:
* Your State:
* Your Phone Number:
* Your Email Address:
* Your Relationship to Nominee:

Please enter your letter of recommendation in the text area provided below: April 12, 2024 To Whom It May Concern, It is with sincerity and enthusiasm that I write this letter of support for the nomination of Tina Herzberg, Susan Osterhaus, Sara Larkin and Penny Rosenblum for the 2024 Dr. Jacob Bolotin award. This team of professionals have dedicated countless hours to developing the educational resource Learning and Teaching the Nemeth Code within UEB Contexts: A Step-by-Step Guide and related materials. It is for this that I believe they should be honored with this award. When the Braille Authority of North America (BANA) voted to transition to Unified English Braille (UEB) in the United States in 2012, states retaining Nemeth Code as the primary mathematics and science code were tasked with procuring resources to teach Nemeth Code within UEB contexts to blind students as well as current and pre-service Teachers of Students with Visual Impairments (TVIs). Over the next ten years, this proved to be challenging. TVIs were piecing together resources from other countries using UEB and trying to teach themselves the correct formatting for the new code. Without any resources, teacher preparation programs were doing the same while training pre-service TVIs. It was a confusing and frenetic time for professionals in the field of visual impairments. As time went on, states began distributing books with Nemeth Code with UEB contexts and state testing began to offer testing in the new formatting. However, there was uncertainty that students had truly been taught correct formatting because TVIs had no reference materials to depend on. This lead to test taking anxiety and confusion amongst the professionals. Furthermore, it was unclear if these state provided resources had the correct formatting themselves. In 2021, I was approached by Tina, Susan, Sara and Penny to ask if I would pilot their new book titled Learning and Teaching the Nemeth Code within UEB Contexts: A Step-by-Step Guide. I enthusiastically agreed as I had been struggling to provide comprehensive and dependable Nemeth Code within UEB contexts resources the pre-service TVIs at California State University, Los Angeles. Over the last 3 years, I have used this book and the supplemental materials developed by the team to train both pre-service TVIs in my teacher preparation program and in-service TVIs who look to me as a mentor. Last year, this book was widely distributed in the visual impairments community, free of charge. By having this book in circulation, TVIs have been able to better prepare braille readers for understanding the new braille format. In turn, braille readers have been better prepared for reading textbooks, completing assignments and taking statewide assessments. As an instructor to pre-service TVIs and a full time TVI in the field, I am grateful that Tina, Susan, Sara and Penny saw the need for this resource and devoted their time and energies to this project. Their efforts are appreciated by the braille reading community and applauded by the professionals working with this community. Thank you for considering Tina, Susan, Sara and Penny for this prestigious award. Gina Michell, MA Faculty Lecturer Division of Special Education and Counseling College of Education California State University, Los Angeles
To avoid multiple recommendation submissions, please click submit one time only.

The Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award

Letter of Recommendation Form