[Cabs-talk] A giant step backwards for the disabled in CA

[Sam Bloomberg]

Hello everyone,

I thought this would be a good place to start and start letting
California blind people know what the state is attempting to do.

This concerns everyone who currently recieves any help from the CA
Department of rehabilitation.

Those of us who have been given a step up through Dept of Rehab know
just how valuable Department of Rehab has been.  DOR helped me with
tuition and most importantly with technology.  Without good products
and good training I never would have been able to succeed in school
and now at work.  The Department of General Services is the department
that is in charge of procurement for DOR.  Currently your producs and
training is offered by several state vendors.  You can meet with each
of these vendors to learn what product is going to work best for you.
Some of them carry many products and can offer a wide range of
expertise.  There are vendors that are strictly service.  These are
the vendors that get hired to help with your training and they often
also help you when you have a technical problem.
I got my equipment from a vendor in southern California.  I know that
I can call that company whenever I have a problem with my technology .
 I count on this company to help me keep my job and to keep me
competetive in school.

There is now a move in the Department of General Services to get a
state wide contract for the products we use.  This means that we will
no longer have the choice of vendors.  The state will offer the
contract to the lowest bid and that is who we will be forced to use.

So let's say that DOR buys you a new laptop and the screen reader
upgrade and the OCR etc.  You may find the computer at your door, the
screen reader comes later and then the OCR.  You may then have to do
all the installation and configuration on your own.  There may be
conflicts with the computer operating system with the products that
you got.  There may be some new features that you are not familiar
with and you need some support.
So now you have all this equipment and you can't use it.   You got
your screen Reader from Freedom Scientific because they were the
company that offered the lowest price for JAWS.  Tell me this my
friends, do you think that you could simply call Freedom and they will
give you all the support and on the phone training you may need?  Of
course not.  My first call when I need help is not Freedom, or Dell or
Kurzweil.  My first call is to the vendor who put it all together for
me.  They are the ones who are best able to help me and the are most
available.

If the Department of General services gets its way than we will all be
given the same products and the same vendor.  How is one company going
to support all of us?  If multiple companies, probably the
manufacturers, get the state contracts based on price then who will be
there to help us put it all together an working properly.  If I am
using JAWS and Kurzweil on a Dell and I have a problem, who will I
call?  Will I call Dell? Freedom? or Kurzweil?  Each of those would
just tell me that the other is the problem.


If the Department of General Services gets its way  then we will all
lose our choice of vendors and be forced to get support from the
company that provided the product.  Think about this.  We wil lose our
local support.  We will have to deal with a company that can't offer
the support because they sold the product at a low price so they can't
afford to give the support.  You may have to call for support on east
coast time.  You may have to wait forever to get your equipment
working.

The Department of General services thinks it can save money be asking
for a state wide contract based on price alone.  If all of our
products are from a veariety of vendors than who do we turn to for
help.  If every services is based on price then how can we believe
that the support will really meet our diverse needs?
Finally if the Department of General Services gets its way then we
will all be treated as if we are all the same.

Please everyone think about this.  Think about what will happen if
just one company gets to sell  JAWS  or Window Eyes.  Just imagine if
Freedom Scientific is the only company to provide JAWS.  Who will give
us the local support?

Thanks for listening to my rant.

Now get back to your studies.

Sam