[nabs-l] New Technology and Blindness

Tue May 3 01:59:11 UTC 2011

Chris:

I think we're bandying about statistics in cavalier fashion.  I know 1.3
million is quoted.  But how many of those individuals consider themselves
visually impaired and hence won't touch anything having to do with adaptive
tech unless it's a magnifying lens or machine?  And if we're counting the
elderly, how many actually will use a Kindle?  I know my mother does (she's
ninety-six) but she's very-much an exception.  Finally, few realize it but
if our Independence market sells twenty thousand of *any* item, it's doing a
land-office business.

Bottom line:  people who consider that the blind constitute a tremendous new
market ripe for the picking are IMO kidding themselves.

Mike

-----Original Message-----
From: nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Chris Nusbaum
Sent: Monday, May 02, 2011 5:45 PM
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] New Technology and Blindness

Wow! Seriously? But how does it make sense from a business standpoint?
Companies in the private sector only work for profit, right? They're all
putting their good or service out to the world with the hopes of earning
money (a profit) from that good or service.  Using this example, the authors
are putting their good
(books) out to the world with the hopes that people will buy their books and
therefore they will earn a profit off of the sold books.  So, again, by
enableing text-to-speech on E-book readers, the authors are opening the door
to 1.3 million more potential buyers (and then some) than they're currently
tapping into, which, if some of those 1.3 million people buy their books,
will increase the profit coming into the authors, which is the end goal.
What am I missing here?

Chris Nusbaum

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

 ----- Original Message -----
From: Jorge Paez <computertechjorgepaez at gmail.com
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list <nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Date sent: Mon, 2 May 2011 17:24:32 -0400
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] New Technology and Blindness

Chris:
Your logic is flawless.
Taking it from a business point,
it makes complete sense though.
Here's the thing:
those groups sometimes make very dumb decisions with a closed mind.
For example: can you imagine they tried to attack the sale of second hand
books?

Like,
say you have a book and sold it to someone who really wants it, well, they
tried to classify that as a violation of copyright! 
law.

So yeah, those groups aren't always logical about their decisions.

Jorge

On May 2, 2011, at 3:55 PM, Chris Nusbaum wrote:

 That's their argument, but it makes no sense to me.  There are about 3.1
million blind people in the country.  So the authors really would be getting
* more * money from * more * customers wanting to buy and read their books,
but can't because the E-books are inaccessible and only 5 percent of books
are available in Braille.  I don't get it! If they're worried about money
from sold books so much, then they should be happy that in enableing
text-to-speech on E-book readers like the Kindle, there would be more books
sold.  Therefore, by enableing TTS on the Kindle, the revenue from sold
books coming into the authors would be * raised, * not lowered! See the
iPad, hint hint.

 Chris Nusbaum

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

 ----- Original Message -----
 From: Jorge Paez <computertechjorgepaez at gmail.com
 To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list <nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Date sent: Sun, 1 May 2011 21:57:10 -0400
 Subject: Re: [nabs-l] New Technology and Blindness

 Is it true they're not allowing it because "its a market?"

 In other words,
 they wanna record text to speech engines reading books to sell as part of
mainstream sales later on and so they're not allowing it in current devices.

 On May 1, 2011, at 9:25 PM, Mike Freeman wrote:

 Partly.  But we're nowhere near there yet and some Kindle books still don't
allow speech access.

 Mike

 -----Original Message-----
 From: nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org
[mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf  Of bookwormahb at earthlink.net
 Sent: Sunday, May 01, 2011 4:37 PM
 To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
 Subject: Re: [nabs-l] New Technology and Blindness

 Glad to have the coalition website; and did the kindle become accessible?

 -----Original Message-----
 From: Tina Hansen
 Sent: Sunday, May 01, 2011 7:04 PM
 To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
 Subject: Re: [nabs-l] New Technology and Blindness

 Maybe I can explain.  The Reading Rights Coalition is not 
officially
 affiliated with the NFB, but it's a consortium of organizations 
who have
 voiced their concerns about access to the Kindle and other 
mainstream
 electronic books.  The coalition is made up of blindness 
organizations as
 well as organizations with other disabilities that make reading 
print
 difficult.  The web site is

 www.readingrights.org

 Thanks.

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