[Athen] Heard of the Index Braille products?

[Pratik Patel]

Please note that this is a personal opinion from a Braille reader.

 

This was a printer we used to recommend when the Index Basic D was first
released. It is one of the most light-weight, easy to configure devices on
the market.  Some may find the speech accent for the configuration program a
bit off-putting. The noise levels are manageable with the acoustic cabinet.
The embosser definitely has some significant problem with paper feeding.  My
concern with this particular model is the Braille quality.  Single-sided
embossing is not a problem.  When moving to double-sided (interpoint)
embossing, however, I found the quality to be less than stellar.  No matter
how heavy a paper stock we used, the Braille was never as crisp as it should
have been.  My opinion on the Braille quality seemed to be shared by quite a
few of our noncasual Braille readers.  I noticed the same problem on all of
the models we placed on our campuses.  Because of that problem, we switched
our recommendation to the Juliet Pro, which has similar features with a
slightly larger footprint and a similar price.

 

Hope this helps.  Let me know if you have any questions.

 

Regards,

 

 

 

Pratik Patel

Director, IT Access. Director, PeopleTech.

The City University of New York

 

From: athen-bounces at athenpro.org [mailto:athen-bounces at athenpro.org] On
Behalf Of Gaeir Dietrich
Sent: Monday, November 26, 2007 1:46 PM
To: 'Access Technologists in Higher Education Network'
Subject: Re: [Athen] Heard of the Index Braille products?

 

Hi!

 

These are the embossers that we use in the California community colleges.
They do work with Duxbury. They are good embossers, although if anyone asks
me for my personal recommendation, I always suggest the Juliet Pro.

 

In particular, our campuses use the Index Basic-D. The major problems have
been with the paper feeding. Some of the campuses have had an issue with
that, and you sometimes have to tweak the cabinet hardware to resolve the
issue.

 

Here at the HTCTU, we also have the 4x4 Professional, which creates
booklets. The Braille is embossed on 11x17 inch paper and is folded into an
8.5x11 booklet. Braille users love the portability. I wouldn't recommend it
as the only embosser as it requires far more paper. For embossing small
things that students need to carry to class, however, it can't be beat!

 

Please let the person who is considering the purchase know that s/he can
contact me directly.

****************************************************** 
Gaeir (rhymes with "fire") Dietrich 
High Tech Center Training Unit of the 
California Community Colleges 
De Anza College, Cupertino, CA 
www.htctu.net 
408-996-6043 

  _____  

From: athen-bounces at athenpro.org [mailto:athen-bounces at athenpro.org] On
Behalf Of Heidi Scher
Sent: Monday, November 26, 2007 9:24 AM
To: Access Technologists in Higher Education Network
Subject: [Athen] Heard of the Index Braille products?

 

One of the other higher ed institutions in Arkansas is asking around about
this brailler.  Is anyone familiar with it? I figured if anyone around has
heard of it, it would be someone in our great ATHENites!  

Their specific questions: 


It's very light, fairly small, but very fast for the price compared with
Enabling Technologies models. Could it be plastic--it's SO much lighter than
the ET models?  Would it hold up over time? Would it work with Duxbury or
would the software that comes with it (from Sweden I presume) work? It's
quite a bit less expensive than the faster ET models, too.

 

Embosser

 <http://www.sighted.com/english/embossers.html>
http://www.sighted.com/english/embossers.html  

 

Manugacturer

http://www.indexbraille.com/ <blocked::http://www.indexbraille.com/> 

 

Thanks for any thoughts you might have.

Heidi 

-- 

Heidi Scher, M.S., CRC

Interim Assistant Director

Center for Educational Access

University of Arkansas

1 University of Arkansas, ARKU 104 
Fayetteville, AR 72701 
(479) 575-3104 (voice) 
(479) 575-7445 (fax) 
(479) 575-3646 (tdd)

 

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