Griffon said schools generally stop providing Braille textbooks after high school, so many college students are left to their own devices when it comes to acquiring required texts. Although the books are available, they may not arrive in time for the first assignments of a semester. Also, if the wrong edition of the book arrives, it may be too late to get a replacement , Griffon said. Most companies that send out Braille textbooks only lend them to the students. This is mostly because Braille textbooks are significantly more expensive than regular printed texts.
Braille is big and bulky and costly to produce.
The cost of these textbooks can be a roadblock to a visually impaired student's education when the books are not available for students to borrow, Griffon said. This means the student must either pay for the book or do without it. Griffon said that as an opera student, she frequently sings in different languages and would benefit from studying Italian or German. Visually impaired students often have readers read to them from books or during a test, Griffon said. Griffon said she finds readers by announcing she needs them in her classes.