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Printer for the Blind February 23, 2005 |
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For students who are blind there's often a barrier in the classroom when it comes to learning. A Corvallis, OR company is changing all that by rolling out a new printing product designed to bridge the gap. Dr. John Gardner, CEO of ViewPlus, lost his sight nearly 20 years ago after complications from glaucoma surgery. The former Oregon State University physics professor began experiencing the difficulties of being blind and wanted to build a printer that would emboss braille text as well as graphs and maps onto paper. Now he's adding ink to the equation. This will really help improve communication between blind and sighted students as well as adults. Sighted people can actually see what the blind person is reading and help them with any questions, says Dr. Gardner. The PIA or personal ink attachment clips onto the ViewPlus Pro Embosser printer and works with any Microsoft Widows application. Even though he's blind Dr. Gardner knows his innovative vision is opening the worlds eyes to the endless learning possibilities of this technology. That's certainly part of the reward of doing this work. We know that we're doing things that are so beneficial to so many people, says Gardner. The printer costs $9750 and the ink attachment is an additional $3995. The company is now working on adding color to the ink as well as making a smaller desk top version for people to use at home. This story was written and covered by KVAL 13 News on Wednesday Feburary 23rd. Video Segments: KVAL 13 News at 6PM KVAL 13 News at 11PM Web Links: ViewPlus Pro Embosser Ink Attachment The original article was posted on the KVAL website at www.kval.com |
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