During the past year I have purchased four new items, all of which could
be classified as specifically for blind people and I also purchased them
from companies that can be classed as specialising in equipment for the
blind.
Some people complain that having to pay a premium for specialised
equipment and then another premium for buying it from specialised
dealers is discrimination and it is better to buy standard equipment and
adapt it to your needs rather than pay the extra. I would be a hypocrite
to say that I have never done this as I operated a combination microwave
oven for 7 years using bump ons and lock dots and still operate my
rotary thermostat using bump ons as markers.
If you have a disability of any kind you will end up paying a premium
for whatever equipment you need because development and manufacturing
costs will always be higher and to put a Ludacris viewpoint to it a non
disabled person will not want to pay a Premium price for a car knowing
that they’re doing so that a physically disabled person can get into the
same model of car and drive it safely as will a person with reasonable
eyesight not want to pay for a talking microwave oven just in case a
blind person Wonder’s into their kitchen and offers to make them dinner.
Out of the four items I purchased only one would have been possible
to buy from a general dealer and that was a Radio CD player with DAB and
DAB plus reception. I did many a search on Amazon to try and find the
most suitable piece of equipment but could not find answers to my
specific questions and as usual I was buying things sight unseen so I
decided to call British Wireless for the Blind and I talked through the
options and they answered all my questions and then sold me exactly what
I wanted and of course getting it through a specialised dealer it was
VAT exempt.
So my advice is that if you cannot adapt or customise some standard
equipment to do exactly what you need it to do look to the specialist
dealers as it will be cheaper in the long run.
