[Nfbf-l] Forced to do it!

[Matt Roberts]

Why do you keep making excuses for not advancing Newsline, and forcing people to stick with 20-year-old technology? The thing you avoid the most you will be forced to confront and deal with it.
Seniors who don't have computers, and who refuse to use them will be left out of life.  IT doesn't matter if they are blind or not.  Companies don't care if you don't want to use a computer, they will force you to do it if you want to use their products.
Airlines will charge you extra money if you book reservations by phone.  I think Southwest is the only company that has not started doing this.
My mom is a senior, and uses a computer every day.  For years I had been telling her the benefits of paying bills on-line.  To my surprise, she tried it one day, and you won't find her paying bills any other way.  She resisted me for the longest time, because she felt sending payments in the mail was better.  NOw she realizes the savings of money to do this.
Banks will now charge you if you get your statements in the mail.  They want you to get your banking information on-line.  I could understand because the cost is lower.
Mom and I  are going to take a cruise in about a month.  Guess what? We had to do all the documentation on-line.  Doing it by phone or any other method would have cost extra money.
Here's another example of being forced to move forward.  I use a "me.com" address for my primary e-mail account.  My contacts, calendar, and mail all go to one place which is synchronized to my Mac, iPhone, and iPad.  Apple has come out with a service called iCloud, which will replace MobileMe.  I have till June 30, 2012 to upgrade all my devices to the required operating systems to still enjoy the convenience of having my stuff synchronize automatically.  Guess what? I had to update my Mac to OSx Lion, and will have to update my IOS devices.  Because iCloud won't work with WindowsXP, I'm forced to buy a new PC if I want to use iCloud on a PC.  The PCs I have won't support Vista or Windows7.  I'm also forced to buy a new version of Office, because Office 2003 isn't supported anymore.  I don't even know if Office 2007, or 2010 will work with speech or not.  I guess I'll have to find out by buying it, and if it doesn't work, I'll have to make it work.
Do you think Apple cares I'm blind and don't want to change because what I have is working? NO, they don't, and why should they! We can't stay with old technology forever.
IF people want anything, they can have it!

Matt Roberts

Sent from my iPad

On Mar 25, 2012, at 11:29 AM, "Kirk" <kvharmon54 at gmail.com> wrote:

> We that support Newsline also agree that it is not an end all to news 
> reading! It is just one method to stay up to date on current affairs either 
> at home, or in a mobile mode. There really isn't any controversy that I can 
> see from this wonderful service. For many of the alternate topics you 
> mention in your comments I have noticed through the years of working with 
> seniors,they don't have the intterest to many them like Newsline does 
> however. Many of the elderly don't own or have an interest to use computers 
> or anything that resembles one for their reading pleasure. This is why we 
> are, as you state, just another source to read the information that 
> interests individual! Kirk
> 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "David Andrews" <dandrews at visi.com>
> To: <nfbf-l at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Saturday, March 24, 2012 2:25 PM
> Subject: [Nfbf-l] Access to Newspapers and Other Media
> 
> 
> Some people here seem to portray things as if we support NFB
> Newsline, or we support the Internet and other things.  They seem to
> be either for or against NFB Newsline to the exclusion of everything else.
> 
> I would like to suggest that sighted persons have access to their
> media in a variety of ways.  They can buy and read paper magazines or
> newspapers, get them on-line, via smart phones, iPads, etc., go to
> the Library and read, subscribe for home delivery, read on Kindle or
> other device etc.
> 
> Blind persons should have a variety of access methods as well.  There
> just isn't one size fits all, and you might use different methods at
> different times during the day.  There are radio reading services for
> some, NFB Newsline for others, and computers, iPhones, and the rest
> for still others.  And ... each of us may use multiple access
> points.  NFB Newsline for example can be accessed via the phone, via
> a computer or phone with web browsing, via the Stream or other device etc.
> 
> So, I don't think we support one method to the exclusion of others.
> 
> Personally I find NFB Newsline to be invaluable.  I download daily
> onto my Stream, and read on the bus.  I don't have an iPhone, and it
> would be difficult for me to do this in other ways.
> 
> This doesn't need to be a controversial or fractious issue.
> 
> David Andrews
> 
> 
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