[blindkid] Looking forward

[Mike Freeman]

Pure demagoguery.

Mike

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Sally Thomas" <seacknit at gmail.com>
To: "NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,(for parents of blind children)" 
<blindkid at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Wednesday, March 03, 2010 9:16 AM
Subject: [blindkid] Looking forward


>I received the following email from the TABS list.  I hope this isn't 
>redundant for you.  I'm really excited by Serotek's plan.
>
> Subject: [leadership] Serotek declares war on the traditional adaptive
> technology industry and their blind ghetto products
> This is no warm fuzzy of a read, but something well worth the read and
> in my opinion long over due. Kudos to SeroTekCited from
> http://blog.serotek.com/
> The Serotek Ultimatum
> Serotek declares war on the traditional adaptive technology industry
> and their blind ghetto products. With this announcement we are
> sending out a
> call to arms to every blind person and every advocate for the blind to 
> rise
> up and throw off the tyranny that has shaped our lives for the past two
> decades. It is a tyranny of good intentions - or at least what began as
> good
> intentions. But as the proverb says, "the road to hell is paved with good
> intentions." And for the past two decades the technologies originally
> conceived to give us freedom have been our shackles. They have kept us 
> tied
> down to underperforming, obscenely expensive approaches that only a small
> percentage of blind people can afford or master. They have shackled us to
> government largess and the charity of strangers to pay for what few among
> us
> could afford on our own. And we have been sheep, lead down the path,
> bleating from time to time, but without the vision or the resources to
> stand
> up and demand our due.
> That time is past.
> We stand today on the very edge of universal accessibility. Mainstream
> products like the iPod, iPhone, and newly announced iPad are fully
> accessible out of the box. And they bring with them a wealth of highly
> desirable accessibility applications. The cost to blind people is exactly
> the same as the cost to sighted people. It's the same equipment, the same
> software, the same functionality, and fully accessible.
> What Apple has done, others are doing as well. The adaptive technology
> vendor who creates hardware and software that is intended only for blind
> folks, and then only if they are subsidized by the government, is a
> dinosaur. The asteroid has hit the earth, the dust cloud is ubiquitous, 
> the
> dinosaur's days are numbered.
> But dinosaurs are huge, and their extinction does not happen overnight..
> Even as they die, they spawn others like them (take the Intel Reader for
> example). Thank you, no. Any blind person can have full accessibility to
> any
> type of information without the high-cost, blind-ghetto gear. They can get
> it in the same products their sighted friends are buying. But let's face
> it;
> if we keep buying that crap and keep besieging our visual resource center
> to
> buy that crap for us, the dinosaurs of the industry are going to keep
> making
> it. Their profit margins are very good indeed. And many have invested
> exactly none of that profit in creating the next generation of access
> technology, choosing instead to perpetuate the status quo. For instance,
> refreshable braille technology, arguably the most expensive
> blindness-specific(and to many very necessary) product has not changed
> significantly in 30 years. Yet, the cost remains out of reach for most
> blind
> people. Where's the innovation there? Why have companies not invested in
> cheaper, faster, smaller, and more efficient ways to make refreshable
> braille? Surely the piezoelectric braille cell is not the only way? And
> what
> about PC-based OCR software? It's still around a thousand dollars per
> license, yet core functionality hasn't changed much; sure, we get all 
> sorts
> of features not at all related to reading, along with incremental accuracy
> improvements, but why are these prices not dropping either, especially 
> when
> you consider that comparable off-the-shelf solutions like Abby Finereader
> can be had for as low as $79? ? And let's not forget the screen reader
> itself, the core technology that all of us need to access our computers in
> the first place. Do we see improvements, or just an attempt to mimic
> innovation with the addition of features which have nothing to do with the
> actual reading of the screen, while maintaining the same ridiculous price
> point.
>
> This maintaining of the status quo will, inevitably, face an enormous
> crash,
> worse than the transition from DOS to Windows based accessibility. You can
> expect a technology crash that will put users of the most expensive
> accessibility gear out of business.
> Why? I won't bore you with all the technical details, but the basic story
> is
> that some of these products have been kept current with patches and fixes
> and partial rewrites and other tricks we IT types use when we haven't got
> the budget to do it right, but we need to make the product work with the
> latest operating system. That process of patching and fixing creates an
> enormous legacy barrier that makes it impossible to rewrite without
> abandoning all who came before. But you can only keep a kluge working for
> so
> long before it will crumble under its own weight. That, my friends, is
> exactly where some of the leading adaptive technology vendors find
> themselves today.
> There are exceptions. Serotek is an exception because we have completely
> recreated our product base every three years. GW Micro is an exception
> because they built their product in a highly modular fashion and can 
> update
> modules without destroying the whole. KNFB is an exception because they
> take
> advantage of off-the-shelf technologies, which translate ultimately into
> price drops and increased functionality.
>
> But even we who have done it right are on a path to obsolescence. The
> fundamental need for accessibility software is rapidly beginning to 
> vanish.
> The universal accessibility principles we see Apple, Microsoft, Olympus,
> and
> others putting in place are going to eliminate the need for these 
> specialty
> products in a matter of just a very few years.
> Stop and think. Why do you need accessibility tools? To read text? E-book
> devices are eliminating that need. None of them are perfect yet, but we 
> are
> really only in the first generation. By Gen2 they will all be fully
> accessible. To find your way? GPS on your iPhone or your Android based
> phone
> will do that for you. To take notes? Easy on any laptop, netbook, or iPad.
> Heck, you can record it live and play it back at your convenience. Just
> what
> isn't accessible? You can play your music, catch a described video, scan a
> spreadsheet, take in a PowerPoint presentation - all using conventional,
> off-the-shelf systems and/or software that is free of charge.
> There are still some legacy situations where you need to create an
> accessibility path. Some corporations still have internal applications 
> that
> do not lend themselves to modern devices. There will certainly be
> situations
> where a specialized product will better solve an accessibility problem 
> than
> a mainstream one, especially in the short term. We don't advocate throwing
> the baby out with the bathwater, but we do advocate that we begin to 
> hasten
> the inevitable change by using accessible mainstream solutions wherever
> possible. Even now, the leading edge companies are reinventing their
> internal systems with accessibility as a design criteria, so the 
> situations
> that require specialized products will certainly become fewer as time goes
> on.
> If our current Assistive technology guard's reign is coming to an end, why
> the war? Why not just let it die its own, natural, inevitable death?
> Because
> nothing dies more slowly than an obsolete technology. Punch cards hung on
> for twenty or thirty years after they were completely obsolete. The same 
> is
> true for magnetic tape. Old stuff represents a comparatively large
> investment, and people hate to throw away something they paid a lot of
> money
> for even if it's currently worthless. But that legacy stuff obscures the
> capabilities of the present. It gets used in situations where other
> solutions are cheaper and more practical. The legacy stuff clogs the
> vocational rehab channel, eating up the lion's share of the resources but
> serving a tiny portion of the need. It gets grandfathered into contracts.
> It
> gets specified when there is no earthly reason why the application 
> requires
> it. The legacy stuff slows down the dawning of a fully accessible world.
> It hurts you and it hurts me.
> To be sure, I make my living creating and selling products that make our
> world accessible. But first and foremost, I am a blind person. I am one of
> you. And every day I face the same accessibility challenges you face. I
> have
> dedicated my life and my company to making the world more accessible for
> all
> of us, but I can't do it alone. This is a challenge that every blind 
> person
> needs to take up. We need to shout from the rooftops: "Enough!"
> We need to commit ourselves in each and every situation to finding and
> using
> the most accessible off the shelf tool and/or the least-cost, highest
> function accessibility tool available. With our dollars and our commitment
> to making known that our needs and the needs of sighted people are 99% the
> same, we can reshape this marketplace. We can drive the dinosaurs into the
> tar pits and nurture those cute fuzzy little varmints that are ancestors 
> to
> the next generation. We can be part of the solution rather than part of 
> the
> problem.
> And all it takes is getting the best possible solution for your
> specific need. Once you have found the solution to fill that need, let
> the company know you appreciate their work towards better
> accessibility. Let your friends (sighted and blind) know about these
> accessibility features; they probably don't know that such features
> exist. Make your needs known to the vocational rehab people you are
> working with, and don't allow them to make recommendations for a
> specific technology for no other reason than that it's been in the
> contract for years. Make sure your schools and your workplace
> understand the need to push technology in to the accessible space.
> Show them the low-cost alternatives. In this economy some, the
> intelligent ones, will get it and the tide will begin to turn. And
> then in short order the tsunami of good sense will wash away the old,
> and give us the space to build a more accessible world for all of us.
> Let the demand ring out loud and clear and the market will follow.If
> this message rings true to you, don't just shake your fist in
> agreement and leave it at that. let your voice be heard! Arm yourself
> with the vision of a future where there are no social, conceptual, or
> economic barriers to accessibility, and let your words and your
> actions demonstrate that you will not rest until that vision is
> realized. Take out your wallet and let your consumer power shine! You
> do mater as a market people! You have kept this company alive with
> your money for 8 years this month! I believe that if we all get
> together and do our part, we will finally say "NO more!" same old same
> old! Join the revolution! Together we can change the world!Posted by
> Mike Calvo at 2:15 PM
>
>
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