Nina KalininaFeb 2

I'm yet again reminded that accessibility technologies are priced unfairly. Did you know that a pair of hearing aids starts at roughly £500 but an average model can easily cost over £1500? And it's not like it's rocket science.
Similarly, Braille displays start at £1500, but can easily cost over £5000.
Similarly, the most popular and one of the most affordable Braille printers costs almost £3000.

Something can be said about special design requirements for such devices, or about the fact that there is no demand to make them at the scale that would allow to cut the costs ten times. And I can't even say that a high price is an excuse; if you'd try to build a Braille embosser that can operate at practical speeds with decent reliability using off the shelf components, you are likely to spend more money on it than you'd spend getting a commercial solution, even without R&D costs.

So, uh, folks, we can do better. I can't be the only one who keeps thinking about making such technologies cheaper, right?

Show threadnnenovFeb 2
@nina_kali_nina a friend at Sheffield hackspace is working on a braille display, currently just an open source software for it ( https://gitlab.com/RincewindLangner/braille-keyboard ) and then he's going to start looking into approaches for hardware. When he showed me the prices and existing options it blew me away. Also the technical challenge for making the tactile display matrix thing definitely looks intimidating to tackle
Matthew Langner / Braille keyboard · GitLab

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Show threadCaféHaineFeb 2

@nnenov @nina_kali_nina Hi!

Is your friend aware of this open-source braille display module ? https://hackaday.io/project/191181-electromechanical-refreshable-braille-module

Electromechanical Refreshable Braille Module

The big drawback to refreshable braille devices has always been their cost. The loose rule of estimation applied to these products has translated into something like $100 to $150 per braille cell. A 40-cell display, in other words, may cost $4,000 to $6,000, while an 80-cell model will cost $8,000 to $12,000. And so it has been that, while desirable, braille computer access has been out of reach for many users of assistive technology. It is thus of great value to lower the cost of individual braille cells in order to manufacture Refreshable Braille Devices at a price that is affordable to the Visually Impared community. While commercially available braille displays use expensive piezo-electric actuated pins. This project employs an electromechanical system with off-the-shelf and easily manufacturable components, leveraging the accessibility of high-quality 3D Printers and micro-magnets to keep the cost low without compromising functionality.

Show threadRincewind
@cafehaine @nnenov @nina_kali_nina No I wasn't aware of it. Will have to look into this one. Could be very useful. Thanks.
Feb 2 at 11:07amWeb
Show threadNina KalininaFeb 2
@rincewind @cafehaine @nnenov generally, do you need any help with your accessibility related software projects? I can boost a toot with a simple call to action; I also think I have a friend who might be interested in contributing a little bit
Show threadRincewindFeb 2
@nina_kali_nina @cafehaine @nnenov Well this is an interesting turn of events. Besides the people from the hackspace (great group of people) I haven't had anyone external wanting to help me with coding projects. TBH I'm not sure how to collaborate on a project with external contributions. It would be interesting to try. If nothing else I will hopefully get some good advice on where I'm going wrong. (Still a novice at this). I will have to check the setting in Gitlab to open it up for MR.