EDUCATIONAL AWARDS

Margaret (Meg) Wagner (1940-2023) was a volunteer braille transcriber and instructor for 50 years.  She enrolled in a transcriber course run by the Pinellas Braille Group of Pasadena Florida in 1973, having previously taught herself braille so she could write to a blind friend after they graduated from Emory University.  Meg received her literary certification in 1975, an event commemorated by an opal and diamond ring given to her by her husband. She later became certified in Nemeth code and then in UEB, teaching many courses and mentoring transcribers in Pinellas County and elsewhere across the state.  She joined NBA a few years later and served on the Board of Directors from 1979 to 1985 and became Chair of the NBA Fund Development Committee and then Treasurer of the Board's Executive Committee. She became a Lifetime Member of NBA in 1980.

In 1975, Meg joined Visual Aid Volunteers of Florida (VAVF), a training organization for the many volunteer creators of braille and talking book materials needed by students in Florida schools. Meg served on its Board of Directors for over 40 years and as President for two years. Close to home, she was a member of the Pinellas Braille Group and served as its President and Treasurer.  She was always the first to volunteer whenever a need arose.

In the late 70’s, NBA Board Member and President Bettye Krolick worked with NBA member Robert Stepp to pioneer the use of a computer to aid transcription. By way of Board meetings, involving Meg and Bettye and others, word of computer-aided transcription reached the Florida Instructional Materials Center (FIMC), sponsor of much volunteer transcribing in Florida in that day. Its Director of Volunteer Services, John Cardinale, started acquiring Apple II computers for braille transcribing, depending on Meg to provide the training, statewide. For many years, Meg traveled to various cities to give workshops on transcribing by computer. This was essentially a solo task until the technology became obsolete, at which time FIMC commissioned the creation of “ED-IT PC” (predecessor of Braille2000) in 1993. And then Meg traveled the state teaching transcribing via that software on the PC. All this time, VAVF was holding annual conferences and other events for training transcribers with Meg (and later, assisted by Robert Stepp) doing workshops. Her skill in teaching and dedication to transcribing touched the careers of countless transcribers.

Meg was a recognized expert in Nemeth braille and would do workshops on it. STEM (Science Technology Engineering Math) was her specialty. She had a passion for detail and greatly admired Dr. Nemeth’s work, getting to meet him in person at a VAVF conference in 2012. For more than a decade she interpreted the braille test results of the annual Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT), rendering an exact print-equivalent copy to represent the student’s work. With a residential school for the blind and many other visually impaired high school students in the state, it was always more than a week’s work converting the dozens of braille exams.

Meg received multiple awards from national and statewide organizations serving the visually impaired. In 2023 she received a "Hero Award" from the local Rotary Club.  Even while battling pancreatic cancer, Meg continued to mentor those learning UEB, graded papers for the inmate program, judged the Florida Braille Challenge for schoolchildren, transcribed children’s “little books” and embossed them on clear adhesive plastic that she affixed to the print books so both braille and print readers could enjoy them together, and transcribed and embossed a weekly bulletin for a local church.  She often joined Zoom meetings with braille organizations or attended workshops to learn more while at a clinic receiving chemotherapy.