[blindkid] Affordable brailling options

[Richard Holloway]

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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