The Braille Challenge is the only academic competition of its kind held in January through March each year for students who are blind or visually impaired.

ISVI will host 2 Braille Challenges in 2024.

The Illinois Regional Braille Challenge at ISVI will be held on Wednesday February 14.    

The 2nd Braille Challenge will be hosted at Northern Illinois University on Saturday, March 2.

ISVI's Braille challenge committee will work with the NIU Staff to host yet another successful event.

The Braille Institute developed Braille Challenge to motivate students to practice and hone their braille literacy skills, which are essential to academic and employment success.

Any blind or visually impaired student in first through twelfth grades who can read and write braille is eligible to participate in the Braille Challenge.  Contestants are divided into five categories and tested on fundamental braille skills such as:

• Reading Comprehension
• Spelling
• Speed and Accuracy
• Proofreading
• Charts and Graphs

Regional contests are proctored by volunteer Teachers of the Visually Impaired and scored locally by volunteer transcribers, based on national guidelines.

Illinois' Annual Braille Challenge is held at the Illinois School for the Visually Impaired in Jacksonville, and in 2024 - ISVI will co-host a 2nd Braille Challenge in March at NIU.   

For more information -

Click Here  to contact Mrs. Roy

All students can compete in the preliminary Braille Challenge events, which are typically held from January through mid-March throughout the United States,  Canada and now the United Kingdom but only the top 50 students (10 in each category) with the highest scores are invited for the final round – two days of competition, camaraderie and fun!