[Njtechdiv] from the new york institute for the blind alumni list.

[ken lawrence]

Hello tech devision members special attention to those attending the national convention.  I think you’ll find this interesting.  this was posted on the alumni group list for the new york institute for the education of the blind, (NYI_       
Freedom Scientific made some announcements this week via its FSCast podcast,
with Jonathan Mosen breaking the news.  If any of you are planning to go to
the NFB convention this year, this should be of great interest to you if you
own or are considering buying software from Freedom Scientific. 

First, ACB convention attendees will be offered slight discounts on FS
products. There will be a ten percent discount on Freedom Scientific
software. This would cover JAWS, MAGic and OpenBook. Five percent discounts
are available on FS hardware products. While Jonathan Mosen did not mention
specific products I am assuming that this would cover products such as the
Sara stand-alone readers, their various video magnifiers, Braille displays,
Plextalk Pocket and even the Pac Mate, if you can justify buying that
particular device. Jonathan explained that Freedom Scientific offers
something known as home-use programs for certain organizations, which they
started doing last year. This is a program offered to companies which have
many software installations for their employees and the home use program
allows employees of such companies to purchase a product like JAWS at a
considerable discount. Other tech companies do this for certain
organizations. As an example, when my wife was a college student the
university she was attending was able to offer her new, legal copies of
software at very, very inexpensive pricing. Apparently, Freedom Scientific
offers similar programs. Jonathan mentioned that organizations such as the
IRS, Social Security and some state agencies for the blind are able to offer
discounts to their staff. Since NFB uses many copies of JAWS at its
headquarters and because it is celebrating its 75th birthday this year,
Freedom Scientific is extending this same pricing offer to all registered
attendees of this year's NFB convention, regardless of where you work or,
for that matter, whether you're employed or not. These offers are only for
the duration of the NFB convention and you must actually visit FS at the
exhibit hall to obtain their products at this special pricing. A complete
JAWS 16 Home Edition license will be available, under the conditions I've
described above, for $75.00. This is not a misprint: that's seventy-five
dollars. This is not an upgrade but will get you a brand new JAWS 16
license. If you already own an older  version of JAWS you can upgrade your
old version to version 16 for just $50.00. For this offer, it doesn't matter
which version of JAWS you own; it can be an upgrade from version 14 or from
version 2.0.\ An SMA will cost you $100.00. New copies of OpenBook are
available for $75.00. MAGic with speech can be purchased for $50.00. MAGic
SMAs are being offered for $75.00. I have proofread this message and what
you are reading is not a series of misprints. Also, FS will be demonstrating
JAWS 16 with an intro to Windows 10. Since it is possible that we may see
Windows 10 released by the end of July it sounds like that JAWS 16 will be
able to work with Windows 10, without users needing to go to JAWS 17 to
obtain Windows 10 support. I am personally quite excited about this series
of offers. My personal JAWS license is stuck at version 6.0 and, as a
trainer, I do need to update my license but frankly cannot afford to do so.
However, as I have family in that area I am seriously considering attending
my first NFB convention to upgrade my version of JAWS. 

David Goldfield, Assistive Technology Specialist 



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