We were honestly lucky to get a few minutes to talk with Dan Gardner, CEO of View Plus, as his booth was constantly filled with convention attendees. Some of that was due to an ATIA promotion, an awesome TSA friendly bottle opener as a booth giveaway item but it mostly was due to the announced debut of the new Power Dot technology being used with the company's embossers. Dan explains how the new feel has come to their embossed braille and how people can compare it to their previous levels of quality. To learn more about Power Dot, or find a dealer in your area, visit the View Plus website
ATIA 2020 coverage is Brought to you by AFB AccessWorld.
For the latest news and accessibility information on mainstream and access technology, Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon offerings, access technology book reviews, and mobile apps, and how they can enhance entertainment, education and employment, log on to AccessWorld, the American Foundation for the Blind's free, monthly, online technology magazine. Visit www.afb.org/aw.
Transcript
We strive to provide an accurate transcription, though errors may occur.
Hide transcriptTranscribed by Grecia Ramirez
From beautiful, and sunny, cloudy Orlando, it’s blindbargains.com coverage of ATIA 2020, brought to you by AFB AccessWorld.
For the latest news and accessibility information on mainstream and access technology; Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon offerings; access technology; book reviews; and mobile apps and how they can enhance entertainment, education, and employment, log onto AccessWorld, the American Foundation for the Blind's free monthly online technology magazine. www.AFB.org/AW.
Now, here’s Joe Steincamp.
JOE STEINCAMP: Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the floor of ATIA. I am having to flag down Dan Gardner, because you’re a busy little bee on the floor here in beautiful Orlando.
DAN GARDNER: Yeah.
JS: How is it going, man?
DG: It’s great. Yeah. Well, we got -- you know, the new Power-Dot announcement has garnered a lot of interest. People have been coming by. Plus, we got a free passport – you know, the passport thing.
JS: Oh. Yeah. Yeah. So –
DG: So everyone’s coming by to get their stamps. So we got – in exchange, we’re doing the tactile maps for the show. They put us on the passport. We thought, oh. Big deal. Well, hey. Everyone has said, I didn’t know you were here. We hadn’t seen you in years. They were all happy to come by to get their free gifts.
JS: Free advertising. You got to love that.
DG: Yeah. There you go.
JS: Yeah, but you mentioned something. Let’s take a step back. Power Braille. Tell me about this.
DG: So, yeah. So Power-Dot was an invention -- and we launched the Columbia – it was about four years ago now.
JS: Yeah.
DG: It’s done well. But I kept hearing people, you know, saying they wanted the Braille to be a little bit better. So last summer, I worked with a local shop around the corner just to drill out by thousandths of an inch to make the cup a little wider, make it a little deeper until we found the perfect combination, in our opinion, to find a nice, strong, readable Braille dot that can rival the best in the business.
JS: And it is different. We were talking, before we recorded, about Diamond Braille versus the new size, and it does have a definite feeling and stands out in a different way.
DG: Yeah. Well, the Columbia was – the Columbia was our first one with the rounded dot that really did well. But so – so this is the generation 2.
JS: Okay.
DG: So we have Columbia and Delta 2 now that just -- the difference is the Power-Dot.
JS: Yeah.
DG: So they’re still doing the 120 CPS interpoint Braille embosser stuff, as well as the multi-height graphics. But the big difference is the dot being almost twice as high as we had before, and have – and while still keeping the diameter within the speck of Braille.
JS: And not really getting in the way of the legibility of the print either. Because looking at the print, it still looks nice.
DG: Yeah.
JS: It looks like I can put it under a video magnifier and not have any issues.
DG: Yeah. Well, the interline text that – being done is on a laser printer. So I can do it any size; right? So you could make it large font, and – yeah. You have quite a bit of room because Braille’s so big as it is. So yeah. Right now, the text takes up about a third of the line at a 14-point size. So I can probably increase it to about almost 30 points, and it would fit.
JS: Now, is this shipping soon? Shipping now?
DG: It’s been shipping since September.
JS: Okay.
DG: We just had done a soft launch because, you know, we wanted to really get it out there, so we shipped more than – I’d say more than a couple hundred units around the world to get feedback.
JS: Fantastic. Okay.
DG: So – and the feedback has been amazing. So yeah. So that’s why – last Friday, we finally decided just to like – well, let’s let everybody else know, offer them – you know, get free – order a year of free samples from our website.
JS: Yeah.
DG: So we’ll send them Free Matter samples. And -- so, yeah. We get – the response has been amazing. I mean, we got – Facebook contacted us because we had so many people that were sharing our release that they offered us like $100 in free advertising to help promote what we were doing.
JS: Damn. That’s fantastic.
DG: So, it’s like – yeah. We’ve gone viral twice now in my short term of five years here at ViewPlus.
JS: What is the price point for Power?
DG: The Columbia is thirty-four ninety-five; and the Delta, the cut-sheet version, is forty-one ninety-five.
JS: Excellent.
DG: So still quite a bit cheaper than the other, quote, Braille embossers out there, and it – but -- includes the tactile graphics advantage, as well as ours also come with the Tiger software suite to you out of the box. You can do tactile graphics and Braille translation, you know, in – you know, built in.
JS: Yup. Perfect. Where should people go to find out more about the new technology?
DG: The right place. www.viewplus.com.
JS: Excellent. Thanks. I thank you for your time. I know you’re busy. I’ll let you get back at it. Have a wonderful show.
DG: All right. You too. Thanks.
For more exclusive audio coverage, visit blindbargains.com or download the Blind Bargains app for your IOS or Android device.
Blind Bargains audio coverage is presented by the A T Guys, online at atguys.com.
This has been another Blind Bargains audio podcast. Visit blindbargains.com for the latest deals, news, and exclusive content. This podcast may not be retransmitted, sold, or reproduced without the express written permission of A T Guys.
Copyright 2020.
Listen to the File
File size: 5.8MB
Length: 05:14
- Download the file
- Listen using our Enhanced Accessible Web Player
- Download our Blind Bargains Apps to listen from your phone or tablet
Check out our audio index for more exclusive content
Blind Bargains Audio RSS Feed
This content is the property of Blind Bargains and may not be redistributed without permission. If you wish to link to this content, please do not link to the audio files directly.
Category: ShowsNo one has commented on this post.
You must be logged in to post comments.
Or Forgot username or password?
Register for free
Joe Steinkamp is no stranger to the world of technology, having been a user of video magnification and blindness related electronic devices since 1979. Joe has worked in radio, retail management and Vocational Rehabilitation for blind and low vision individuals in Texas. He has been writing about the A.T. Industry for 15 years and podcasting about it for almost a decade.
