[Trainer-talk] Properly Formatted without my Signature/The Changing Landscape of the Assistive Technology Industry

Tue Jul 8 16:10:46 UTC 2014

I used a Pac Mate for many years. I stopped using it in either 2009 or
2010, I recall asking an FS rep at an NFB convention several years ago
when they were going to have built-in wifi on the PacMate, rather than
having to get a separate wireless card, as well as doing necessary
updates to the PM. He didn't really give me an answer, other than
saying that to improve the wifi would cost a lot and there was no
guarantee that many people would then buy it so they could make a
profit. I kept my unit for several years but finally got rid of it.
Now I use a Windows 7 laptop and a Braille display with my iPhone.

Best,
Wayne

On 7/8/14, Michelle Clark via Trainer-talk <trainer-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> I  agree with your comments Chris. I  use a  Pac Mate and questioned "Where
> are the updates?".
>
> Michelle
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Trainer-talk [mailto:trainer-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of
> Nusbaum, Christopher via Trainer-talk
> Sent: Tuesday, July 08, 2014 9:16 AM
> To: David Goldfield; List for teachers and trainers of adaptive technology
> Subject: Re: [Trainer-talk] Properly Formatted without my Signature/The
> Changing Landscape of the Assistive Technology Industry
>
> David,
>
> This is a very fascinating article and I thank you for passing it along. It
> is true that the assistive technology landscape is rapidly changing with
> robust solutions being available at lower prices than they were even 5 or 10
> years ago. However, as a blind student who is now working in the assistive
> technology program of our school system, I am finding, to my dismay, that
> the education market is largely not embracing this change.
>
> For years I and other BrailleNote users have warned Humanware that they are
> falling hopelessly behind their competition and will likely go out of
> business if they do not soon catch up. I have seen many blind people moving
> away from the BrailleNote in favor of HIMS's BrailleSense or even lower-cost
> stand-alone Braille displays connected to iOS devices. They, and frankly I,
> see no sense in paying over $6000 for a device which runs a version of
> Windows discontinued in 2001 with no plans to update it when they can pay
> half that price for a Braille display and an iPhone, with which they can do
> as much and more compared to the BrailleNote. When I expressed these
> concerns to Greg Stilson of Humanware, however, he dismissed my comments by
> saying, "We won't go out of business anytime soon. We have the education
> market." In talking with AT professionals in school systems in my area, I
> have found this to be the case. They had never heard of the BrailleEdge or
> NVDA or HIMS. They had no idea any of this technology existed. It's not made
> by Humanware, so it doesn't exist. This is similar with Freedom Scientific,
> another company which has taken hold of the education/rehab market and owns
> it almost exclusively when it comes to screen readers. Noone knows that
> there are free solutions which can handle most programs used for education
> as JAWS can. When these agencies become aware of this changing landscape, I
> believe the industry will once again be shaken up as the school systems
> which once bought exclusively from certain vendors drop them in favor of
> lower-cost, more efficient options. I would appreciate hearing your thoughts
> on this.
>
> Chris
>
> Christopher A. (Chris) Nusbaum, Intern
> Technology Services Department
> Assistive Technology Program
> Carroll County Public Schools
> Phone: (410) 751-3428
> Cell: (443) 547-2409
> Email: canusba at carrollk12.org
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Trainer-talk [mailto:trainer-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of
> David Goldfield via Trainer-talk
> Sent: Monday, June 30, 2014 12:16 PM
> To: List for teachers and trainers of adaptive technology
> Subject: [Trainer-talk] Properly Formatted without my Signature/The Changing
> Landscape of the Assistive Technology Industry
>
> The Changing Landscape of the Assistive Technology Industry
>
> I remember when I first began using what we call assistive technology back
> in the 1980′s. Computers were incredibly expensive and the screen readers
> which powered them were actually cheaper than those computers.
> Specialized devices made for blind consumers were produced by companies
> which exclusively made such products and you had to pay a high premium for
> those products. As we fast forward through time to the year 2014, things
> have radically changed and I predict they will continue to do so.
> Companies in the a.t. industry are developing new and, to some, surprising
> business models in how they distribute their products and services. Some
> consumers are asking why this is happening.
> In a nutshell, the landscape for computer access, and the computer industry
> as a whole, has radically changed and producers of screen readers simply
> can’t use the business model that worked for them in the 1980′s and 1990′s.
> For Windows users, we now have NVDA, which has become an extremely robust,
> reliable and stable screen reader. That’s not meant as an advertisement but
> this has been my personal experience as I continue to use, teach and support
> consumers in the use of most of the major screen readers. It offers enough
> features to satisfy most home users, as well as many students who are in
> school. In January of this year, GW Micro, now AI Squared, turned the
> industry on its head by offering Window-eyes to consumers who have Microsoft
> Office 2010 or later installed on their computers, which is a lot of people.
> With the economy being what it is, state rehab organizations are less likely
> to want to pay thousands of dollars for access software for a client and
> this will surely hurt manufacturers of some of the more expensive screen
> readers. Of course, there will always be visually impaired workers in a
> corporate environment who will require a screen reader with the power and
> configuration of JAWS and window-eyes but users at home or who are in school
> may not always need such a product to get by. I can anticipate the
> objections that NVDA doesn’t have the power and flexibility of a product
> like JAWS but for a product which was officially released in
> 2009 it’s come a long way and additional support for Office is being added,
> not to mention that NVDA, like most other screen readers, is also
> scriptable. Let’s also not forget that blind consumers have understandably
> embraced apple with open arms, due to their commitment to universal
> accessibility in nearly all of their products. Basically, the economy is
> struggling and computers and other mainstream devices are becoming less
> expensive and more accessible all of the time, making the prospect of paying
> a thousand dollars for an access package very unappealing and, to some,
> unacceptable.
> Therefore, companies which sell products the way they did in the early
> 1990′s are going to be clobbered by their competition and they must change
> the way they offer their products. This out of the box strategy could work,
> assuming it’s the correct strategy. Open source products like LibreOffice
> come to my mind where the product is free for anyone to download, install or
> distribute but consumers need to pay if they want support or if they require
> custom configurations. It’s an intriguing business model and it seems to
> work if you’ve got the right product. If you’re a state rehabilitation
> counselor and are responsible and accountable for the money that you spend
> on your consumers who are requesting software for corporate use, I’ll offer
> you two choices and I’d like to know which one you’d consider. First, you
> could purchase a screen reader for a thousand dollars, in addition to paying
> an hourly fee so that a programmer can write custom scripts to ensure that
> the screen reader is compatible with the company’s proprietary applications.
> After all, many companies aren’t just using Microsoft word and Microsoft
> Outlook as their main suite of programs. Your second choice is to see to it
> that the free NVDA screen reader or Window-eyes for users of Microsoft
> Office is installed on your consumer’s computer. Once your consumer’s free
> screen reader is installed, you might still need to pay someone to write
> custom scripts but you’ve saved a thousand dollars in purchasing a screen
> reader.
> GW Micro is a great example of a company in the a.t. industry trying to make
> money in this changing landscape by thinking out of the box. First, finding
> a convenient way to essentially give away an $895.00 screen reader was a
> pretty brilliant move on their part. For other companies, it would have been
> quite risky but I suspect it’s not as much of a risk to them, considering
> their partnership with Microsoft. Secondly, they actually do charge for
> several support plans for consumers who chose to get the “window-eyes for
> Users of Microsoft Office”. Also, they do offer phone-based training for a
> fee. This type of out of the box strategy is also being done by Fedora
> Outlier with a service they call the $6 question where they will answer any
> support question you have for $6.00.
> That may not make them a ton of money but it’s a brilliant move and nobody
> else in this field is doing anything quite like that, at least to my
> knowledge. As I write this, it occurs to me that mainstream companies like
> Microsoft and Apple are getting the same message and are doing things we
> wouldn’t have expected even five years ago. Microsoft is essentially giving
> away new versions of Windows to consumers who are running Win8 or later.
> Apple is now offering packages like Pages and iBooks for free, at least for
> new users, and they even gave away the last OSX upgrade for free and I
> believe Yosemite will also be offered at no cost.
> It’s also interesting to note that we’re seeing mainstream companies offer
> products and services which, years ago, would have only been available
> through specialized companies and this move, while a welcome one to
> consumers, is already affecting the assistive technology industry. Dynavox
> and Tobii have merged and the assistive technology built into the iPad is
> something which Dynavox couldn’t compete with. In fact, the Guardian Liberty
> Voice recently published a piece proclaiming that Apple is a leader in the
> assistive technology field. When I first saw the article, I nodded my head
> in agreement and didn’t think much about it. But then I thought about what
> the piece announced. One of the biggest leaders in the assistive technology
> industry is not one of the well-known or even well-respected companies in
> this field but instead it’s Apple, one of the biggest mainstream companies
> on the planet. Once I really started thinking about this it positively blew
> my mind and I could barely wrap my head around that fact. So, as I said
> companies, both mainstream as well as adaptive, have to change the way they
> do business if they want to continue to stay in business. Some of them are
> doing just that and those are the companies which will likely survive as the
> industry continues to transform into something totally different and truly
> wonderful.
>
> --
>
>       David Goldfield,
> Assistive Technology specialist
> ---------
>
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> http://www.davidgoldfield.info
>
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>
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