[blindkid] Braille note

Richard Holloway rholloway at gopbc.org
Fri Mar 30 14:25:44 UTC 2012


Mountbattens are a neat idea, but they are not nearly as versatile or portable as a notetaker. We have tried them at conventions. Nothing compares to the BrailleNote for us so far. 

Kendra uses her BrailleNote for many hours a day most days... At school, on the bus, in the car, even walking about doing whatever she wants to do. She constantly makes notes and also makes tons of recordings which she labels and can access by the Braille file name on the Apex, so she can sort through them entirely on her own. She reads books in Braille on it, or at night, she has the machine read books to her.

She does nearly all her homework and schoolwork on her Apex now. The exception being a good bit of her math which needs to be done on a Perkins or with an abacus, depending on just what the problems are.

Sometimes someone will say she never turned in homework, no doubt because they mix up the Braille pages when a TVI is not handy. I told them not to delete her homework anymore, so now if that happens, we just reprint. If I'm concerned over a huge project getting lost, I back it up myself, onto MY computer or media. In fact Ioften backup everything for her off-line. Now nobody can loose her work, not ever her.

We bought our first notetaker, a PAC Mate. As I recall, we got it before she got her first mPower, while she was using a Braille 'n Speak in Kindergarten.

We struggled to decide between a PAC Mate and an mPower. (this was before the Apex came out.) What I discovered was that Freedom sells refurbished PAC Mates on their web site. A BX-400 refurb goes for $1676.50. That has no display, but you can add one later because PAC Mate displays are removable. Refurb 20 char displays cost $980 as opposed to $2440 for a 40 character unit. That means for $2650 or so, you can have a good notetaker with a Braille display. They will strongly suggest hardware and software maintenance agreements, or HMA's SMA's. These are a good idea because repairs are expensive, but you may get by fine with no failures too. It is a gamble. 

If you want to upgrade later, you can buy a 40 to replace the 20. If your display breaks, you can service it without sending in the actual PAC mate. Displays also will work as stand alone braille displays on a PC with jaws, and though I have never used the feature because we bought jaws before I knew this, the PAC mate includes a way to authorize jaws on your PC (the PAC Mate needs to be attached to use this feature).

Just buying JAWS software costs about $900, so that is an interesting value when you look at all the numbers.

Here are refurb details from freedom:

http://www.freedomscientific.com/products/whats-on-sale.asp

With all that said, we still like the Apex better, but I'm not aware of refurb options with them, so the PAC Mate is worth a look; it is a strong value, especially the refurb model, and the JAWS feature makes the deal even sweeter.

I know it is a lot to process, but I wanted you to know this, especially  if you are looking at something like a used Mountbatten. Better to know BEFORE you buy...

Sent from my iPad

On Mar 30, 2012, at 9:01 AM, Traci Wilkerson <traci.renee27 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Thanks everyone for your input, now to put my thoughts together and my
> approach as to why she should have a notetaker.  I think just b/c I feel
> strongly about technology and how much it can help isn't going to be
> adequate.  :/
> 
> I have a friend who has a mountbatten and doesn't use it, so going to check
> it out this weekend.
> 
> Did anyone have to bite the bullet and buy their own?
> 
> Traci
> On Mar 30, 2012 8:46 AM, "Richard Holloway" <rholloway at gopbc.org> wrote:
> 
>> My daily auto-correct typo. That should have read she is so FAST with her
>> right hand, not "fact"
>> 
>> Sorry.
>> 
>> Sent from my iPad
>> 
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