I've just had a look at the Sense website and they are offering a set of brailled playing cards for £2 94. Oddly enough the supplier is the RNIB. The Sense website seems to be up to date but the playing card offer might be out of date, but might still be worth looking into. http://www.sense.org.uk/help_and_advice/people_who_are_deafblind/equipment_and_accessibility/games/large_print_braille_cards Tom. ----- Original Message ----- From: Ibrahim Gucukoglu To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Sunday, February 05, 2012 12:06 PM Subject: [access-uk] Re: Chancing the cards? Hi Mike. I have a set of playing cards which must be 15 years old or more, I’ve had them since I was a child and used them regularly. The cards come in a sturdy cardboard box and the braille dots though very faint on some of them are still quite legible. If RNIB are putting braille cards in a tin to protect the dots and they think this is an acceptable reason to charge over double what the print cards sell for, they’re clearly desperate to add value to these to justify the price. The packaging makes little or no difference to the cards since if you use them on a regular basis the dots will become flattened and fainter over time anyway, a tin isn’t going to make the slightest difference to that. If RNIB were to sell a set of plastic like cards which were robust and sturdy instead of the flimsy cardboard ones they sell, then I could perhaps justify spending that on a set. As you say though, I’m probably going to have to buy a decent set myself and have them brailed with sighted assistance. All the best, Ibrahim. From: Mike Moore Sent: Sunday, February 05, 2012 11:36 AM To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [access-uk] Re: Chancing the cards? Ibrahim, Obviously you have failed to take into regard the high quality box the cards come in..... though it is to protect the less than sufficient quality of the playing cards, so the bumps don't get flattened!! It's a sod, but I agree with Peter, buy a good quality set of cards, the vinyl ones which will give a good sharpness of Braille and mark them yourself. You can also come up with a better system of ID.. Kindest, Mike ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Ibrahim Gucukoglu Sent: 05 February 2012 10:11 To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [access-uk] Chancing the cards? Hi Everyone. I know we’ve discussed games on here in the past, so I thought I’d raise this issue as it raises my hackles somewhat. I was on the RNIB online shop this morning looking for brailed playing cards, and was shocked to discover that these cards cost £7.26, while the standard printed cards cost less than half this at £3.5. For an organisation that claims to promote equal access, this is hardly an encouragement to take up a new hobbies or interest as it penalises those of us who must use braille. A couple of sets of these cards would set me back a Wapping £14.5, an outrageous amount of money considering that the work required to adapt these cards IE putting a suit and numeric denominator on each hardly merits such an inflated price. Thoughts anyone? All the best, Ibrahim.