For many years I resisted having business cards. When asked, I’d say “I don’t do analog” and the moment passed in laughter. Now I find I need business cards. I most certainly wanted Braille on my business cards. I care deeply about accessibility, so my business card will be accessible. I set out to find out about Braille business cards.
There are two main ways to get Braille on your business cards. Stick-on labels are the easiest. Most printers offering Braille will make them for you. The other way is for the printer to emboss the Braille directly on your card. Labels only require that you place the order, embossing requires that you send your cards to be embossed. So labels take the least amount of steps and planning.
I decided that I had the time for embossing. There are a number of businesses offering this service. I got some recommendations from Twitter. A number of people chimed in: @Acuity_Design, @clifftyll, @Accessible_jobs and a few others.
Sam J @mixolydian recommended Access-USA where they charge $65.95 for 500 cards. Also recommended by @johnfoliot is T-Base Communications which charges $59.95 for 500 cards. Both of these services offer to take your existing cards and emboss them. Not included in the price is the cost of printing the cards, shipping the cards to them, and shipping the cards back to me.
I’m starting fresh with new cards, so I need printing and embossing. I looked for another solution and found Morning Print located in Irvine, California. They do both printing and Braille finishing for $45.94 for 200 cards including shipping and tax. They use UV activated clear ink for the Braille which is different from the true embossing offered by other companies. The resulting price is about the same for all three companies, but Morning Print offered me one-stop service. I’m waiting to feel the results.