[nabs-l] [Braillenote] notetakers: are they worth buying anymore?

[Chris Nusbaum]

I posted my question to the BrailleNote users list, and this is a 
response that may be of interest to you.  Just so you know, BN 
means BrailleNote and HW means HumanWare.

 Chris

"A loss of sight, never a loss of vision!" (Camp Abilities motto)

The I C.A.N.  Foundation helps visually impaired youth in 
Maryland have the ability to confidently say "I can!" How? Click 
on this link to learn more and to contribute: 
www.icanfoundation.info or like us on Facebook at I C.A.N.  
Foundation.



 Sent from my BrailleNote

 ---- Original Message ------
From: Alex Hall <mehgcap at gmail.com
Subject: Re: [Braillenote] notetakers: are they worth buying 
anymore?
Date sent: Sun, 24 Jul 2011 22:33:27 -0400

Oh boy, this will get interesting! <smile

Here are my thoughts.  Like you, I do not have an opinion yet, 
since I
think there are good cases both for and against specialized 
braille
notetakers.  However, I think that the notetaker's days are 
numbered;
it costs more to buy and maintain, it cannot do as much, and
mainstream solutions just keep getting better while our own 
notetakers
still can't read docx or pdf files, in mid 2011.

Pro Case:
The notetaker is still the easiest to use, not requiring the
purchasing of special software, the underlying accessibility
frameworks to be used, or the myriad commands or gestures needed 
(I
realize a case could be made against that last one).  Notetakers 
are up
and ready to go, no connecting the display or anything.  They are 
also
designed from the ground up with accessibility in mind; where 
else can
you write in three different braille codes in one document, 
depending
on the situation? A notetaker, in other words, is designed for a 
blind
person to use efficiently and easily, while mainstream devices 
that
are accessible are designed with sighted users in mind and then 
made
to be accessible after the fact.  Yes, they cost more, but so do 
screen
readers, and screen reader upgrades, at least for JFW, can cost 
more
than BrailleNote upgrades.

Con Case:
Some of what is in the Pro section is company-specific and so 
cannot
be applied to the notetaker or screen reader industries as a 
whole.
For instance, JFW upgrades do cost money, as do BrailleNote 
upgrades,
but HIMS upgrades are free.  The NVDA screen reader is free to 
begin
with.  As for braille being ready immediately, iOS has this 
covered;
turn on the display and unlock your iTouch and the two will pair
within five seconds automatically.
(I will now focus on iOS as it is the only mainstream device I 
have
been able to use braille with.)
iOS is very accessible and, aside from some grade 2 translation
problems, I find it very useable.  It lacks a good wordprocessor, 
but I
can install any number of other apps on it.  A dictionary for my 
bn
costs $200 from Humanware, but a dictionary app costs nothing
whatsoever and can go online for definitions if I want it to.  
There
are countless games, utilities, and other apps on my iPod that my 
bn
could never manage, and most of them were free, not hundreds of
dollars.  Are they as accessible as Keyword on the bn? Not all of 
them,
but many are, provided one does not apply the same useability 
model to
the iPod as one would to the bn.  That is, the iPod has a screen 
I can
touch to do things, whereas the bn relies only on keyboard input.  
It
is unfair to call the iPod not as accessible because everything 
cannot
be done from a braille or QWERTY keyboard, since the iPod was not
designed with keyboard use in mind, just as the bn was not 
designed
with a touch-sensitive pad in mind.

The other question was whether braille is important.  I consider
braille absolutely essential.  I often use the iPod and apex 
together,
since each offers different things that the other cannot do, or 
cannot
do as well.  For instance, I might check my Twitter feed on the 
iPod
through the bn's terminal application, then exit the terminal and 
send
an email on the bn since I can write faster and not worry about
translation errors.  I may then go back into terminal to open a 
PDF
document, and jump between reading the PDF in braille on the bn 
(via
the iPod) and writing notes on the bn (in it's own 
wordprocessor).
However, even if I did not have the apex, and only the iPod, I 
would
have gotten a display of some kind.  What happens when it is 
noisy and
I cannot hear the speech well enough? What about when I have no
headphones with me but am somewhere where a yapping computer is 
not
welcomed, such as taking notes in a class or meeting? What about 
when
I simply want to see how a word is spelled, or look at the 
spacing of
a document, without reading character by character with speech?
Braille is vital in these and other instances, and so I consider 
it
vital to whatever mobile computing solution a blind person 
decides to
use.  My computer at home does not have a display because there 
is
rarely a time when one would be useful, since the room where the
computer is set up is quiet and I can use arrows, sound schemes, 
and
other means to quickly examine text if I need to.  However, my
apex/iPod combo goes everywhere with me when I am out of the 
house,
and I most often use the bn, whether I am actually using the bn's
applications or am using it as a terminal for the iPod.

On 7/24/11, Chris Nusbaum <dotkid.nusbaum at gmail.com> wrote:
 Hi all,

 I don't have a set opinion on this matter as of yet, but I'd 
like
 to initiate the discussion.  I'm noticing a trend in the
 blindness technology field: PC's can do most everything a
 notetaker (BrailleNote, BrailleSense, PacMate, etc.) can do, 
with
 some obvious changes and differences, and in some cases can do
 and support more than the notetaker.  This is also true with the
 ever-improving accessible smartphones and tablets: the iPhone,
 iPad, iPod Touch, (the semiaccessible) Android phones, the KNFB
 Reader, etc.  Yes, the notetakers have built-in Braille 
displays,
 but you can also install a stand-alone Braille display on a
 computer to display what's on the screen, or you could just buy 
a
 screen reader (text-to-speech, not text-to-Braille) as a
 replacement for the Braille display...  that is, if you think it
 is in fact a replacement for refreshable Braille.  That's 
another
 question for all of you in this discussion.  So, here's the
 question: with all the advancements and capabilities of a
 computer and screen readers or stand-alone refreshable Braille
 displays, is it worth it, in your opinion, to buy a notetaker
 anymore? What, given all the things a PC can do, is the real
 purpose of the notetakers now? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

 Chris

 "A loss of sight, never a loss of vision!" (Camp Abilities 
motto)

 The I C.A.N.  Foundation helps visually impaired youth in
 Maryland have the ability to confidently say "I can!" How? Click
 on this link to learn more and to contribute:
 www.icanfoundation.info or like us on Facebook at I C.A.N.
 Foundation.

 Sent from my BrailleNote

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--
Have a great day,
Alex (msg sent from GMail website)
mehgcap at gmail.com; http://www.facebook.com/mehgcap