[nabs-l] Independence with a Price Tag

[Sarah alawami]

Agreed. Is there a way we could arange that?  I refuse to speak in public
though. Lol. I suck.

-----Original Message-----
From: nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Peter Donahue
Sent: Sunday, February 07, 2010 11:13 AM
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Independence with a Price Tag

Hello Dave and listers,

    And what about the fact that some of what we pay for this stuff has been
used by one vendor to sue the competition in an attempt to monopolize the
industry?  All of us are feeling the desperation and disgust over this
situation that has gone on for too long. Perhaps it's time to stop
circulating the same old fashion voodoo we've heard for years concerning
nitch markets, high development and production costs ,etc, and that a
full-scale investigation in to the development, marketing and pricing
practices of these companies be launched! There are too many voices speaking
out against the state of adaptive technology marketing and such to continue
to ignore it.
Something must change!

    I was reminded of this last night when Mary expressed her frustration to
me over not being able to send in her Pack Mate for some needed repairs due
to the high cost. She lost several family members to cancer and has been
recommended for a colonoscopy. She was scheduled to have one of these exams
last fall but had to back out due to the high co-payment charged by the
hospital. The money had to go to repairing some of our adaptive technology
instead. When people are forced to jeopardize their health in order to keep
their access technology up-to-date and working we have a serious problem
which can no longer be tolerated!

    A main agenda item of this year's national convention will be
technology. Perhaps time should be made for presentations by the technology
vendors and discussions to find ways of developing this technology while
holding down and reducing costs to users. JMO.

Peter Donahue

----- Original Message -----
From: "David Andrews" <dandrews at visi.com>
To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list"
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, February 06, 2010 10:54 PM
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Independence with a Price Tag


Yes the technology is expensive and no one likes it, but you are
throwing around words like "overpriced," and "steal money" with
little regard for the truth.  This does nothing towards improving the
situation.

Dave

At 10:41 AM 2/3/2010, you wrote:
>I believe that we shouldn't have to pay so much for technology.
>There comes a point where we are all going to have to pay for things
>like the BrailleNote that I wrote this e-mail on.  It's ridiculous
>how companies like HumanWare Ltd and Freedom Scientific, for
>example, overprice their products so that they can steal taxpayer
>money and then market to a tiny group of people.  The problem is we
>need this technology in order to do something a sighted person would
>do such as check e-mail like a sighted person would on his or her
>i-phone.  Good points, Joe.
>Beth


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