Braille Identifiers and Filing Systems, Braille Label Makers

What is Low Vision?

An individual is considered to have low vision when the eyesight is impaired or limited and cannot be adequately corrected with conventional glasses, contact lenses, or surgery. Low vision affects all ages and has an impact on many aspects of an individual’s life. It may cause problems with using a computer, reading, watching TV, dialing the telephone, recognizing faces, crossing the road, and seeing stairs. Daily living and leisure activities are also affected, such as walking, cooking, and getting dressed. Low vision is often a loss of acuity or sharpness, but may also present light sensitivity, a loss of field of view, distorted vision, or a loss of contrast.

The most common causes of low vision are glaucoma, macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, cataracts, retinitis pigmentosa, and other retinal dystrophies. These eye diseases affect the vision in a variety of ways and their impact is connected to the amount of loss in visual field, visual acuity, and contrast, which vary from person to person.

What are Different Types of Identifiers to Help Those with Low Vision?

Good contrast is critical for those with low vision issues. Contrast is when an effect is created by arranging or placing very different things next to each other in a way that highlights their differences, such as shades, colors, and textures. For example, striped warning tape is an adhesive tape in yellow and black stripes, or white and black stripes. It is made to mark floors, stairs, or ramps and is laminated to be durable in high traffic areas. This tape can be utilized in the office, home, workplace, or school to aid those who may need extra guidance.

Identifiers which can help with organization and ease of use include tactile dots, card readers, money braillers, elevator braille plates, clothing color tags, tactile filing systems, and clothing braille labels.

Tactile dots are raised dots usually with adhesive backing which can be attached to a flat surface in a variety of combinations. They enable doors, drawers, appliances, or other items to be identified easier. The dots may be round, square, colored, or clear. Card readers record and read cards and are employed as a household item identifier. They normally include a built-in speaker and microphone, have more than one speed, and operate on battery or electricity. A money brailler marks a bill’s denomination in braille by inserting the bill’s edge and squeezing the correct number on the brailler.

Elevator braille plates stick over existing elevator buttons and have numbers as well as braille dots for easy identification. They can also be used for room numbers. Clothing color tags are made in different shapes in order to mix and match different pieces of clothing. Clothing braille labels can be stitched or pinned onto each piece so those who are blind can match their outfits. A tactile filing system includes a box with tabbed index cards and a set of alphabetized dividers with large tactile letters for those who are visually impaired.

Rehabmart is proud to carry a variety of innovative identifiers from superior quality vendors, which include MaxiAids, Omnimed, and LSS.

Hulet Smith, OT
Rehabmart Co-Founder & CEO

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