[blindkid] Affordable brailling options
Richard Holloway
rholloway at gopbc.org
Wed Jul 21 03:24:10 UTC 2010
I feel compelled to toss in a word of caution from a parent who is
still fairly new to braille's perspective--
There are absolutely some deals to be had on used embossers on ebay--
I have found (and bought) some of them, but it is absolutely a buyer
beware sort of situation.
When a $200 used Romeo breaks, Enabling will probably charge at least
$1200 to rework it (their figure, not mine-- I asked them for a
typical repair cost with no major problems on a Romeo). If a used
printer with no manual has the some of the dip switches in the wrong
positions, you can be delayed and frustrated at best, while you search
for the switch functions. If you think the switches are wrong but the
printer is actually DOA, it may take you a really long time to figure
that one out. Remember proficient Braille readers, some of us who are
new to braille have to check dot-by-dot to see if we are embossing
what we think we are so testing can be VERY tedious. If a line width
is chopping off characters for example, that may not be terribly
obvious to some of us.
If you needed a USB printer but ended up with an old serial/parallel
solution, there may be a need to adapt things-- more time, money, and
frustration. Even if you track down free or low-cost translation
software, Braille embossers just aren't like the plug-and-play ink jet
& laser printers many of us have come to expect in the sighted-print
world.
The bottom line is if you're not paying for a warranty and support,
you may find that a $200 embosser quickly becomes a $200 (or more)
lesson in frustration, but if you like to gamble it might also get you
up-and-running for a couple thousand dollars less than buying new
equipment.
Personally, I do tend to gamble on things like this in many cases but
sometimes it costs me money. In any case, to get up-and-running
quickly, I'd most likely put finding any sort of embosser on my list
well below borrowing the use of one with a more experienced braille
producer or having someone more used to doing this with Braille label
sheets help you on a Perkins for now. I'd also seek all the ready made
solutions I could find, especially the free ones before any of the
above-- there are quite a few of them out there.
Remember to see Carol's link for some of those:
http://www.nfb.org/nfb/NOPBC_Braille_Storybooks.asp?SnID=2
That's my two cents' worth...
Richard
On Jul 20, 2010, at 9:32 PM, Brandy W wrote:
> Tractor feed braille label is actually cheaper than the thicker kind
> with out the tractor feed. You can often find good priced embossers
> from ebay. I'd recomend you type the material and find someone
> willing to emboss it for you if you provide the braille label. You
> can buy 50 sheets for about $30 from American Thermoform. For
> example several people have sent me documents and the braille lable.
> I then emboss for them and send it to them for them to cut and
> stick. I don't mind doing it for you either when my embosser comes
> back. My port on the back isn't working right. So in the mean time
> is there a TVI who would emboss it for you if you provided the
> label? Or maybe an NFB memeber who has a personal embosser?
>
> Just some ideas,
>
> Bran
>
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> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Richard Holloway" <rholloway at gopbc.org
> >
> To: <empwrn at bellsouth.net>; "NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,(for
> parents of blind children)" <blindkid at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, July 20, 2010 7:55 PM
> Subject: Re: [blindkid] Affordable brailling options
>
>
>> That is exactly what an embosser is-- a "braille printer", but
>> unfortunately, "faster" and "affordable" are generally not in the
>> same category. A good low-end embosser (new) is in generally in the
>> $2500 range and that will also require Duxbury or some similar
>> translation software if you're going to want to produce contracted
>> braille. That will add $600 to $1000. There are used options for
>> the hardware, but if you're new to this there may be support and/
>> or repair issues and repairs can easily be $1000+ for some of
>> these units. Also, these are generally tractor-fed devices so you
>> can't easily run sheets of adhesive material through them with
>> ease-- assuming you want to stick clear braille over the pages. I
>> expect you can get tractor material for that but it is probably
>> not cheap and probably comes in good sized boxes (expensive) and
>> you'd have a good deal of waste with it as well from feeding in &
>> out to tear off the work as you go...
>>
>> The above may not be terribly helpful as I'm telling you what
>> won't work cheaply, as opposed to what will, but I think generally
>> if you want to add braille to children's books, the fix is dymo
>> labels or sheets of that clear material in a Perkins, so you
>> already have the preferred solution, it is just a bit of a hassle
>> and somewhat slow. Is there a local person who is faster with
>> braille who might be able to sit down with you for a book-
>> brailling session once in a while? Maybe someone from a local NFB
>> chapter, for example if not through the county or school system?
>> And of course there are already multiple sourced for pre-made
>> books. Short-term, you could buy a lot of braille books for much
>> less than an embosser and the required software...
>>
>> Richard
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Jul 20, 2010, at 8:26 PM, Marie wrote:
>>
>>> Hello everyone, can y'all give me some ideas for affordable
>>> options for brailling some of our favorite books at home. I have
>>> a borrowed Perkins brailler but am quite slow currently. I also
>>> have a labeler which is faster but the strips are a bit awkward
>>> when I am trying to fit them on the book pages. Jack has recently
>>> become more interested in those dots and books in general. I have
>>> been modeling sweeping my fingers as I read and I am very
>>> delighted to report that I found him "reading" one of his
>>> favorite books to himself and he was sweeping his hands across
>>> the page!!! Unfortunately it was in a book that I have yet to
>>> braille. I would love to know if there is an affordable option
>>> for printing up braille quickly at home. I was thinking of maybe
>>> something that I could hook to my computer? Is that what an
>>> embosser is? It would be a whole lot faster if I could type the
>>> text and then have something "print" the Braille for me. Is such
>>> technology available and affordable for home use?
>>>
>>> Yes I do plan on practicing more with the Brailler but until
>>> then....
>>>
>>> Marie (mother of Jack born May 2005)
>>> See glimpses of life with my determined son who is developing in
>>> his own way at his own time at http://allaccesspasstojack.blogspot.com
>>> Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
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>>
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