[blindkid] Looking forward

Fri Mar 5 01:33:48 UTC 2010

As a dedicated Braille reader I am wary of the idea of eliminating companies 
that design technology exclusively for the blindness market.  I highly doubt 
that mainstream companies will ever come forth with devices that include 
Braille displays.  Refreshable Braille has expanded Braille access beyond my 
wildest dreams, and I worry that a shift to purely mainstream products could 
turn out to be a giant step into speech access only.

Debbie
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steve Jacobson" <steve.jacobson at visi.com>
To: "NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,(for parents of blind children)" 
<blindkid at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, March 04, 2010 4:45 PM
Subject: Re: [blindkid] Looking forward

> Sally,
>
> I have hesitated to say anything because I feel that Serotek has very nice 
> products but somewhat questionable marketing techniques.  The fact is that 
> to talk you
> away from JFW, HAL, or Window-Eyes right now is really talking you into 
> his products in my opinion.  He over-simplifies the situation with braille 
> displays, too.  He is
> using our frustrations and civil rights to direct frustration against his 
> biggest compettitors without letting you know that he is doing that.  This 
> is also coming out just
> before the large CSUN conference which I feel makes the timing 
> interesting.  Let me be clear, he makes some good points, and his products 
> tend to be good
> values, but this hit me wrong, too.  There are some reasons that many of 
> us have felt that we have been better served to have some competition in 
> the screen
> reader arena even though it cost us more, rather  than to push Microsoft 
> to create a screen reader, and I'd be glad to explain that sometime if you 
> are interested.
> The picture is complicated.
>
> We should push to raise awareness of accessibility within mainstream 
> software, and we need to watch how it works to do what Apple is doing. 
> The writer is correct
> that things will be changing over time, but I think there was a good deal 
> of hidden marketing here.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Steve Jacobson
>
> On Thu, 4 Mar 2010 08:31:24 -0600, Sally Thomas wrote:
>
>>Do you think he's self serving?  It seems to me that supporting technology
>>that is accessible right out of the box is a good thing.  I bought my son 
>>a
>>Victor Reader and it languishes beside his iPod Touch which is used every
>>day.  The Touch is smaller and more useful to him but both technologies 
>>cost
>>me about the same.  I also thought that the NFB Technology Bill of Rights
>>was along these lines--equipment accessible right out of the box.
>
>>I would believe that his motives aren't pure since he is a businessman but 
>>I
>>am a bit tired of buying very expensive equipment only to find out a 
>>couple
>>of months later that it is obsolete.
>
>>Sally Thomas
>>----- Original Message ----- 
>>From: "Mike Freeman" <k7uij at panix.com>
>>To: "NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,(for parents of blind children)"
>><blindkid at nfbnet.org>
>>Sent: Wednesday, March 03, 2010 11:01 PM
>>Subject: Re: [blindkid] Looking forward
>
>
>>> 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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>>>
>>>
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>
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>
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