The Scottish Braille Press, a leading UK provider of accessible media, will move to a new state-of-the-art facility in Robertson Avenue, Gorgie, in October as it prepares to boost its workforce.

The company has seen steady growth with total income at more than £3 million for the first time ever in 2016/17, compared with £1 million in 2005.

The Scottish Braille Press currently employs 86 people, and hopes to create 13 new jobs with the move. The company is a Supported Employer and around 50% of its employees have some form of disability.

Scottish Braille Press Manager, John Donaldson, said: “This is a very exciting time for the Scottish Braille Press, marking a significant new chapter in its history as a provider of accessible formats for visually impaired people.”

Vision impairment charity, Royal Blind, purchased the City West building in April to accommodate the business’ expanding client-base and workforce.

John said: “In the past ten years we have helped more and more companies to meet the needs of their visually impaired customers by providing correspondence or documents in Braille, Audio and Large Print

“Our output has now reached a point where we need a larger premises to facilitate the growth of our workforce. A team will be created to plan and co-ordinate the move without any disruption to the day to day activity of the Scottish Braille Press.”

The Scottish Braille Press was established in 1890 as a printing department of the Royal Blind School, in Craigmillar Park, to provide meaningful employment for pupils.

It moved into a purpose built facility – its current premises – on the same site in 1953.

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John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.