They offer a major advantage over speech programs by allowing the user to immediately learn the format of the data on the computer screen. When proofreading, the user quickly catches misspellings, extra spaces between words, and accidental capitalizations. The price remains the major disadvantage. Braille notetakers are small, portable devices with braille keyboards for entering information, using a speech synthesizer or braille display for output. They are popular in classrooms, meetings, and on business trips due to their size, flexibility, cost and quality of silence during data entry.
Braille printers convert text files into hard-copy braille.
Current disadvantages of braille printers are that they are noisy and expensive. Pulse Data International, Limited is a designer and manufacturer of leading-edge technology for people who are visually impaired. It has been committed to improving the opportunities for partially sighted and blind individuals for more than 16 years. Pulse Data International's innovative product range includes speech synthesizers, computer programs, talking notebook computers for blind individuals, and close-circuit television reading systems for partially blind individuals. A new version of the keynote GOLD VoiceCard has been released with several enhancements.