[nabs-l] New Technology and Blindness

Chris Nusbaum dotkid.nusbaum at gmail.com
Tue May 3 20:13:23 UTC 2011


Okay, well that doesn't have to be exact.  A lot of elderly 
people won't use the Kindle.  And no, the blind won't start a 
whole new market, but we will certainly add to the current market 
as long as the products on that market are accessible.

Chris Nusbaum

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

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Freeman" <k7uij at panix.com
To: "'National Association of Blind Students mailing list'" 
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Date sent: Mon, 2 May 2011 18:59:11 -0700
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] New Technology and Blindness

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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