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The journey of Index Braille - featured in Technology magazine

"Points of Light in the Darkness"

Index Braille has not always been a success from the start. Featured in the Technology Companies (Teknikföretagen) magazine is the article and interview; "Points of Light in the Darkness," an article and journey of the company Index Braille and for owner and CEO, Björn Löfstedt since its start in the early 1980s. 



HIs mother became blind when he was just nine years old, for Björn Löfstedt this was a life shocker and took a number of years to come over. Behind such a tragedy became inspiration. Today his company, Index Braille, is close to having 70 percent of the world market for braille embossers, but to have market shares is not the first incentive, his dream is to offer a large number of visually impaired individuals the opportunity to read and write

There is no one else in the world than can product equally equip braille printers for a better price, but the road there has been long and challenging. 
In the beginning the problem was to simply get a product that worked. This is something that took longer time and devoured more money than planned. A few years after the company started, in the beginning of the 1980s, bankruptcy was close by, to survive the company needed to develop and sell assorted blindness products. 

Come the beginning of the 1990s, Index was able to present its first modern printer, the Everest. Everest was unique when launched: sheet fed, double sided braille embossing, speech feedback interface, modern design and available for a lower price than competitors. Today this braille printer is still one of Index's main products, just simply has gone through developmental changes. By the end of the 90s the companies economy looked upward, the braille printers had come out into the market and sales figures were decent. Today Index concentrates only on the manufacturing of Index Braille printers in which have climbed to world leaders and inside of the fourth generation embosser line. 

For Mr. Löfstedt it is important to be able to be proud of what he is doing. This overall encouragement is to do good things for the visually impaired and do something to affect their lives positively. HIs goal is to increase literacy among the blind community


Only 20 percent of all visually impaired individuals in Western Europe and the USA can read, corresponding numbers for sighted persons is 97 percent. 

The Visually Impaired Foundation here in Sweden states on their website that the right to learn braille is not guaranteed within Swedish law, sadly this is reflected in a number of countries world wide. It is therefore likely that any one individual who may loose their vision, risks becoming illiterate!

Löfstedt's views are that there is not difference between visually impaired and sighted persons needs in mainstream society. Everyone must be able to read and write, otherwise it is difficult to move forward, gain independence and find a job. It would be as if in ordinary schools they would state that we no longer need to read and write, we can watch TV and videos instead. Simply said, literacy is important, no matter where the digital era takes us. 

It is the living society's failure that everyone is unable to learn to read and write. To read and write is the basis of prosperity, on both a personal level and for a society as a whole. 

Index Braille exports over 70 countries every year world wide. Currently, the largest market is South America. In South America, braille is like gold. If you have braille this shows that your region is progressive and accomplished. 

Braille Box, Index Braille's largest and most advanced braille embosser has won a number of world renowned design awards. Never in history has a product within the blindness industry won such attractive awards, so this is exciting, says Löfstedt. "For me design and construction are the same thing; stylish design, a product that is sensible to use and includes a valuable user interface."

A single character includes up to 6 to 8 elevated dots within a braille cell. By combining the points (dots) in different sequences, one can build 63 different characters, and by combining these characters on may build on diversity from there. At Index, the embosser heads include 13 solenoids (hammers), which 7 negatively charged and 6 are positively. Those in which are negative emboss on one side of the paper, meanwhile the positive solenoids emboss on the other side of the page. 



With consideration of Index Braille's placement in the world market, foreign visitors often are surprised by the size of the company. In Gammelstad, Sweden, just outside of Luleå only 12 people steer this world leader. Today Index manufactures 40-50 braille embossers daily, and cake only comes after we have managed to produce more than over 1300 Basic-D embossers to Brazil in just a few short months. 

Source: Teknikföretagen