[Pibe-division] any sugggestions Sara Rooz

Tue Sep 20 18:53:26 UTC 2011

Hi Sara,

I am always happy to learn of the experiences of other professionals and  
consumers of blindness products. I'm sure the PAC-Mate is a  fine product,  
particularly the Omni--which has sought to make noted improvements over the  
earliest versions of the machine. I believe that user preference is key to  
purchasing decisions and fully concur that both parties, Freedom and 
HumanWare,  could do significantly better with their help documentation, 
particularly in  providing a hardcopy braille alternative. And, while I appreciate the 
 context-sensitive help afforded by the BrailleNote, I also appreciate 
individual  preference. Fortunately, the Apex has made strides in correcting 
some of the  earlier, very frustrating, internet woes of which you made note. I 
also like  that it has a user-replaceable, highly affordable, battery. But, 
 ultimately,  believe that the more choices we and our students are given,  
the better off we are as consumers. Company complacency can be problematic 
for  us. But, if fair competition exists, all companies will have to fight 
for market  share--which is how it should be.

Please send some of those cooler New York temperatures our way!

EG

In a message dated 9/20/2011 1:17:53 P.M. Central Daylight Time,  
sararooz at gmail.com writes:

Dear Eric: 
Thanks for providing the pricing  for the braillenote from Humanware and 
your experience about users learning  the braillenote and pacmate omni.  
I will just say that I did go down  to the technology center of the nfb and 
did sample all the note takers on the  market. My main consideration to 
purchasing a note taker for my own personal  and professional use was price,   
customer support And technical support.  The pacmate Omni from Freedom 
Scientific was the most affordable and I have  been extremely happy  with the  
technical support if any question arises regarding my product. I used the  
Braille lite for sixteen years, prior to purchasing a new note taker. I was  
happy dealing with Freedom Scientific when issues arose with my Braille lite.  
Regarding the learning curve, I  was able to master how to use the mobile 
applications of Microsoft word and  excel and  the pacmate omni's word  
processing  and calculator as well  as how to read books I downloaded onto the 
unit. 
The main issue I realize is that all  documentation of any manufacturer of 
assistive technology is that to learn any  product one must learn how to use 
the product from the help file on the  product or go online and use the 
documentation provided on the manufacturer's  website. Another blind consumer 
and I have felt that this practice inhibits a  learner to learn how to use 
the assistive technology product and its  capabilities. This observation 
applies  for both the Pacmate Omni from Freedom  Scientific  and the braillenote  
from Humanware. Humanware offers documentation for the braille note in a 
text  format or pdf format which is inaccessible with a screen reader such as 
Jaws  for Windows. Freedom Scientific allows the user of a product to go 
online at  their website  documentation to be  read continuously or by each 
topic.  
The best solution is for  manufacturers provide braille hard  copies of 
basic commands of their assistive technology. 
I have discussed this issue with the  manufacturer Freedom Scientific and 
have been told that an owner of a product  can print into braille user 
documentation. As a result, I have printed the  appendix of all the commands and 
have found it easier to learn the pacmate  omni. 
The braillenote does contain some  problems though.  I have also been  told 
by a consumer of the braillenote that when this product is used as a  
braille display for a computer the note taker freezes. Consequently, the note  
taker and computer have to be restarted. A blind  friend of mine used a  
voicenote from Humanware and found it hard to connect to many sites on the  
internet and download emails and read emails as well as emails with  attachments. 
Ultimately, my friend has stopped using this product and has  learned how 
to use Jaws for Windows to type and use the internet and read  email. I do 
hope that humanware has been open to correcting the ability to  display sites 
using the internet and downloading emails and reading emails  whether the 
emails contain attachments or not. I also have heard that many  customers and 
teachers of students that use the braillenote are not happy with  the 
technical supportand the long timje for a unit to be repaired and shipped  back to 
the customer  from  Humanware. 
Sara Rooz 
Certified Teacher of the Blind and  Visually Impaired in New  York 

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