What's a braille display that _works_?

[John J. Boyer]

Mario,

How much does the Braille Star cost? Is the company good at service? Does 
it have a braille keyboard? I am interested because, although my present 
Braille Lite 40 is doing nicely, I am not sure how long I can continue 
getting it repaired by a good company.

Thanks,
John


On Tue, 4 May 2004, Mario Lang wrote:

> "Lee Maschmeyer" <lee_maschmeyer at wayne.edu> writes:
> 
> > A trend among hardware as well as software manufacturers seems to be to
> > release a product or program "on time" rather than when it's ready. I'm
> > thinking specifically of braille displays, and I've read reports over the
> > past couple years of braille displays allegedly not working as advertised.
> > These reports frequently come from vendors of rival products, but they don't
> > always.
> >
> > I'm going to a technology bash tomorrow in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with a heavy
> > interest in looking at braille hardware that's currently being manufactured.
> > Do any of you have experience, especially bad experience, with stuff on the
> > market today? Is there anything I need to stay away from because of its not
> > (yet) working on Linux?
> 
> The only newly manufactured model I know of which does not yet work
> under Linux is the new USB display of Papenmeier.  But this is likely
> to change soon.
> 
> Apart from that, a personal experience I've made several
> times in my life is that routing keys made of rubber-like material
> tend to get stuck at some point, generating quite some problems.
> 
> One other aspect I personally dislike are displays with very few novigation
> keys, like the Vario 40, which has only got 6 keys on the display.
> I find those displays a bit anoying in daily use.
> 
> To give a bit of positive input too, I currently use a HandyTech
> Braille Star 40, which is a very nice ergonomic device.  Have a look
> at it if you can someday.
> 
> 

-- 
John J. Boyer; Executive Director, Chief Software Developer
Computers to Help People, Inc.
http://www.chpi.org
825 East Johnson; Madison, WI 53703