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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: To the Bolotin Award committee: I would like to put forward Don Winiecki of Handid Braille Services as a nominee for the Dr Jacob Bolotin Award. Having worked with Don for a while, I can confidently vouch for his outstanding character and dedication. He’s not only a pleasure to work with, but displays qualities core to the translation industry: He’s helpful, kind, intelligent, and does whatever he can to lower barriers and help companies like mine get people the braille content they need. Whether it’s reducing the financial burden by finding assistance programs, or streamlining processes, or expertly dealing with inevitable chaos as happens in any project, or offering advice and insight on never before seen situations, he’s a tremendous help and my first choice over anyone else I’ve worked with in the industry. He has what I hope many of us do: that this work isn’t a job, it’s a mission. My main reason for this nomination is his trailblazing work with multiple languages. As one of the largest language and services providers in the world, TransPerfect regularly works with people all across the world. Finding accessibility services like braille to support these countries is not just difficult, it’s often seemingly impossible. Sure, if you want to find someone to convert your US based textbook to braille, you’ll have no issues. You probably won’t even struggle much to find help in Spanish or other western languages (we say FIGS: French Italian German Spanish). But Turkish? Hmong? Thai? Arabic? Hebrew? Basically anywhere in Africa or APAC? Forget it. Don has done tremendous work by offering braille not just in commonly supported languages, but in nearly any, allowing braille to become truly global. Along with his wonderful approach and level of skill, this makes him an easy choice for nominee, I hope you’ll consider him. Sean McCurry Accessibility Lead, TransPerfect Translations International Inc. April 15, 2024
To avoid multiple recommendation submissions, please click submit one time only.

The Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award

Letter of Recommendation Form