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Braille Institute history
Braille Institute company history timeline
Braille Institute was founded in 1919 by the efforts of one man, J. Robert Atkinson, and has grown enormously in the decades since.
1924 — Atkinson completes printing in revised braille the King James version of the Bible in 21 volumes.
1926 — First issue of The Braille Mirror published, a braille magazine for adults patterned after The Reader’s Digest format.
1933 — Atkinson moves his organization to 741 North Vermont Avenue in Los Angeles.
1934 — Braille Institute joins the NLS and becomes a Branch Library.
1936 — Determined to get more blind people working, Atkinson successfully lobbies for a bill to provide rent-free space for blind vendors in federal office buildings.
1938 — Braille Institute produces the first braille Webster’s dictionary in more than 100 years of braille printing.
1948 — The first edition of a brailled children’s anthology, Expectations, was published as a free gift to blind children.
1954 — Visual Aids consultants begin demonstrating magnification devices that help people maximize their existing vision.
1964 — J. Robert Atkinson passes away at the age of 76.
1971 — Braille Institute’s first regional center opens in Anaheim.
1972 — The first Braille Institute Track and Field Olympics is held at the Youth Center.
1973 — A Rancho Mirage Regional Center is opened in rented space.
1983 — A new Santa Barbara Regional Center is dedicated, stretching our services northward to the tri-county area.
1990 — Our new Rancho Mirage Regional Center opens to meet the needs of people in Riverside and San Bernardino counties.
1993 — A San Diego Regional Center is established in leased space near La Jolla.
NLS Director Frank Kurt Cylke was in attendance for the first time since 1996.
1998 — Braille Institute launches its first website at: brailleinstitute.org
1999 — Mobile Solutions— a traveling display of our programs and services — is launched, reaching out to people who are not able to come to one of our five regional centers.
2000 — Sound Solutions, a free series of 14 educational audiotapes presenting practical information for people with vision loss, is released.
2004 — New Santa Barbara Regional Center dedicated.
A Spanish language feature of the Telephone Reader Program began in May 2005.
2005 — Our Braille Institute Library is named Network Library of the Year by the National Library Service.
Library Director Henry C. Chang was appointed to the Advisory Committee to complete the 2005 edition of the Revised Standards and Guidelines of Services for the Library of Congress Network of Libraries for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, published by ALA.
A new service called Kids’ Korner was unveiled at the Library Open House on October 19th, 2006.
2008 — Braille Institute gets a rebranding facelift, with a new logo, mission statement and reorganization of several departments.
A new Digital Conversion Library Committee was established to guide planning for the digital talking book transition and to prepare the staff for the conversion in 2008.
NLS Network Division Chief Doctor Carolyn Sung, author Michael Patrick MacDonald and actress Mariette Hartley participated in the 2008 Library Open House Program.
The Library hosted the 2009 annual KLAS Conference from April 21-23 at the Braille Institute’s San Diego Regional Center.
2014 — Connection Pointe is launched in Los Angeles to assist students with utilizing technology.
2016 — Our first neighborhood center is opened in Laguna Hills.
2019 — Braille Institute celebrates its centennial anniversary, a major milestone few non-profit organizations achieve.
2020 — Braille Challenge celebrates its 20th anniversary of promoting the importance of braille literacy with youth.
View our April 2022 reopening plan for required center appointments and protocols.
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| Company name | Founded date | Revenue | Employee size | Job openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dayton's Bluff Neighborhood Housing Services | 1980 | $5.0M | 9 | - |
| American Italian Cancer Foundation | 1980 | $2.1M | 5 | - |
| Lexington Community Foundation | 1982 | $5.0M | 50 | - |
| Rochester Area Economic Development | 1985 | $1.7M | 30 | - |
| Alameda Point Collaborative | 1999 | $5.0M | 39 | 4 |
| Helen Woodward Animal Center | 1972 | $16.6M | 134 | 10 |
| BGC of Lansing | 1964 | $999,999 | 22 | - |
| The Bridge to Life | 1992 | $499,999 | 50 | - |
| Oshkosh Area Community Foundation | 1928 | $10.6M | 6 | - |
| Rosie's Place | 1974 | $11.3M | 55 | 15 |
Braille Institute history FAQs
Zippia gives an in-depth look into the details of Braille Institute, including salaries, political affiliations, employee data, and more, in order to inform job seekers about Braille Institute. The employee data is based on information from people who have self-reported their past or current employments at Braille Institute. The data on this page is also based on data sources collected from public and open data sources on the Internet and other locations, as well as proprietary data we licensed from other companies. Sources of data may include, but are not limited to, the BLS, company filings, estimates based on those filings, H1B filings, and other public and private datasets. While we have made attempts to ensure that the information displayed are correct, Zippia is not responsible for any errors or omissions or for the results obtained from the use of this information. None of the information on this page has been provided or approved by Braille Institute. The data presented on this page does not represent the view of Braille Institute and its employees or that of Zippia.
Braille Institute may also be known as or be related to Braille Institute and Braille Institute of America.