[Blindmath] great question...Re: Economical tactile graphics - Microcapsule or Swell Paper in a microwave oven?

[kelly marts]

Mr. Baldwin,
I find this to be a question that has bothered me in the past year. I am a 
teacher of the visually impaired working in public schools. I have the luxury of 
working with skilled braillists that have the task of making our tactile 
graphics.

We are using a Tiger system as well as swell paper. The cost of the swell paper 
is under 2 dollars per page. The cost of sheet fed braille paper is, I'm 
guessing, 5 cents per sheet. 


The swell paper requires a 1500 dollar machine to toast the paper and computer 
systems and graphics software that are readily available. The Tiger system has a 
6000 to 10000 dollar cost initially. Training is provided. Again, the computer 
systems to generate the graphics are readily available. 


We use both. Which we use depends on the graphic and the experience of the 
braillist. I perfer the Tiger graphics for math and science materials in high 
school.  

This doesn't answer your question. I want to do a cost anaylsis though. 
Made me think.
K




________________________________
From: Richard Baldwin <baldwin at dickbaldwin.com>
To: BlindMath Mailing List <blindmath at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Wed, August 10, 2011 10:02:52 AM
Subject: [Blindmath] Economical tactile graphics - Microcapsule or Swell Paper 
in a microwave oven?

I keep thinking that one of the big needs in teaching STEM courses to blind
students is the need to quickly, easily, and economically create tactile
graphics from printed graphs and images.

I have read about using Microcapsule or Swell Paper, which seems like a
reasonable approach except that the heating devices are relatively expensive
(more than the cost of an HP laptop) and not portable.

Every teacher's lounge in K-12 and every student lounge in college has a
microwave oven. Many faculty members have a microwave oven in their office.
Has anyone tried heating a printed piece of swell paper in a microwave oven
to see how it reacts?  If it doesn't react well by itself, would it help to
sandwich it between two pieces of the silver crisping cardboard that comes
with frozen pizza? Or how about sandwiching it between two of the gel-filled
pads that are designed to be heated in a microwave oven and then applied to
sore joints? That would tend to provide a more uniform heat to the surface
of the paper. I have been unable to find any specifications regarding the
temperature requirements for causing the microcapsules to swell.

What can we do to dramatically improve the availability of custom-made
tactile graphics?

Is there a group or list that concentrates on such issues.  I found a list
named Adapted Graphics for the blind and visually impaired (Adapted
Graphics) but I was unable to navigate the interface to get registered, and
in any event, there didn't appear to be any recent posts in the archives?

Dick Baldwin

-- 
Richard G. Baldwin (Dick Baldwin)
Home of Baldwin's on-line Java Tutorials
http://www.DickBaldwin.com

Professor of Computer Information Technology
Austin Community College
(512) 223-4758
mailto:Baldwin at DickBaldwin.com
http://www.austincc.edu/baldwin/
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