Dear all, This is Vision Australia's response to the email posted on 30th September regarding prices for adaptive equipment.
Vision Australia is a not for profit organisation and is the largest provider of blindness and low vision services in Australia. Combining the skills and resources of five leading blindness organisations to create one national voice, Vision Australia is committed to delivering exceptional and efficient services that open up exciting possibilities for our community. Australians can purchase Perkins Braillers either independently from the USA, or through Vision Australia. Vision Australia purchases a bulk shipment every 1-2 years of approximately 50 Perkins Braillers. Due to our shipments being greater than 7kg, Vision Australia is required to pay for shipping of these Perkins Braillers. Vision Australia's policy on the sale of commercial items identifies a mark-up for all equipment sales that seeks to cover our costs of administration, shipping and handling. The current price of $1,325 reflects wholesale prices charged to Vision Australia for Braillers that were bought about 12 months. Our next shipment will be from new suppliers at hopefully a more favourable exchange rate for the Australian dollar. Vision Australia endeavours to keep prices as affordable as possible for our customers and clients. With regards Luisa Ferronato National Program Manager, Equipment Solutions Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Begin forwarded message: > Some of you might find this interesting. > > Consider, if you will, the standard Perkins brailler. A well made > device which has stood the test of time I think we all would agree. > Retail for a new Perkins brailler is US$690.00. (A$802.70) Expensive, > yes but worth it for a device that is expected to last for many > decades of use. > > Now consider that Perkins will ship the brailler you order online to > anywhere in the word for free. "Free Matter for the Blind" is an > international postal convention not just in the U.S. and Canada. > > Now comes the racket. In Australia, as in most places braillers are > purchased by by governmental or quasi-governmental agencies. In > Australia all of these must place their orders through an outfit > known as Vision Australia that charges A$1325.00 or US$1138.97 > for a Perkins brailler. Or in other words a A$336.27 or US$289.06 > markup thats a 20.2% markup on each brailler sold. Not bad when you > consider that Vision Australia gets braillers shipped to them at no > cost. > > But it's not just Vision Australia, and in fact they are far from the > worst offenders. Consider JAWS in Australia. In the US it goes for > US$895.00 (A$1041.18) a lot of money and then there is the constant > updating costs as well. In Australia the same product with > the same English voices sells for A$2395.00 or US$2058.74 a > markup of A$1353.83 (US$1163.75) or a 32.7% markup. The cost of > shipping packages to Australia can't be that much and if Freedom > Scientific wanted to they could send electronic packages to Australia > at no cost and have them printed and packaged there at far less than > A$1353.83. > > This kind of thing, I am told is common with JAWS being marked up at > similar rates in Europe as well. No wonder that in some rehabilitation > setting in Australia the blind are advised to get Macintosh computers. > Apple for example charges A$1148 (US$968.82) in Australia for a top > of the line MacMini, which includes the screen reader. In the U.S. the > same computer sells for US$799 (A > $929.50) or a markup of just A$39.32 or just 4% > > Someone in the Australian media should look into this. End forwarded message.
