Atlanta Area School for the Deaf Adds OKI Garment Printer

To help fund its school activities and field trips, the Atlanta Area School for the Deaf, in Clarkston Ga., runs a store where it sells shirts and garments branded with the school's name. For years, the school outsourced these items but often the quality of these items was not good enough. So the school added an OKI 711WT and began producing these garments itself with students operating the machine. The difference has been startling.

Not only is the quality much better, but students are engaged in the process. They discuss design ideas with teachers and then use the OKI to print their design in color until it is perfect and ready to be printed on transfer media. Jolina, one of the students, says she loves the OKI Digital transfer printer. She and her fellow students make shirts for different events like fall festivals.

The Atlanta Area School for the Deaf is unique as it serves elementary through high school students. It currently has approximately 180 students enrolled. Becky Miller Dumet has been teaching marketing at the school for eight years. She noted that the school's dye-sublimation machine requires frequent maintenance and can only be used with light-colored shirts, because dye sublimation does not offer white. By contrast, there are no problems with the OKI, which can produce any design on any type of garment and in any color. The OKI comes with white toner inside which makes it easier for the teachers as well as for the students.

The shirts and garments printed by students on the OKI are sold in the store and help pay for field trips. For instance, they compete in a state competition every year and this means that the students can go for free.

The biggest benefit of the OKI is the fact that it includes white toner that allows students to print on any garment, such as 100% cotton or 100% poly or all the different blends.