[blindkid] Looking forward
Mike Freeman
k7uij at panix.com
Sun Mar 7 18:26:51 UTC 2010
Sally:
You say you wish NLS would spend more of its money getting up-to-date braile
materials in the hands of your son rather than recording audio books you can
get elsewhere. However, there is at least one fallacy in your reasoning:
(1) many (though assuredly by no means all) audio books are abridged and
half the time, one never knows whether a book is abridged until you have
bought it and discover that fact to your wallet's sorrow. (2) Commercial
audio books aren't in Daisy standard; more and more NLS digital talking
books are; this means that your son can navigate them far easier than he can
navigate a comercial audio book. (Yes, older books that are converted may or
may not have full Daisy navigation but all the newer ones do; I've seen some
references that have 4 levels of navigation).
I hear you about buying expensive technology that all-too-quickly becomes
out-of-date. However, (a) no one ever said blindness wasn't an infernal
nuisance sometimes and (b) this is a problem with *all* technology these
days. In my opinion, it would be better for the public were a mandate
possible that all technology would be frozen for a year -- innovate a year,
let the technology gel a year and then start the cycle over - but it ain't
a-gonna happen. (smile)
Incidentally, the way to get more NLS braille books is to increase the
number of blind persons reading braille. Hence, NFB's fanaticism (and that
of ACB's Braille Revival League, for that matter) on this topic.
Bottom line: there's method to almost everyone's madness! (grin)
Mike Freeman
----- 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: Friday, March 05, 2010 7:36 AM
Subject: Re: [blindkid] Looking forward
>I appreciate the fact that many of you have far greater experience with
>blindness technology than I do. I have a pretty strong bologna detector so
>I knew there was more to the story than taking the message at face value.
>I should have made that clear when I posted the first time. I do, however,
>think we can embrace mainstream technology when it gets the job done at an
>affordable price. If the technology is there, let's get it in the hands of
>people who need it. I would never dream of spending $2000 on a phone for
>my son but an iPhone is almost within the realm of possibility. And I wish
>that NLS could spend more of its money getting up to date brailled
>materials in the hands of my son rather than spend its funds on audio books
>that I can get from other sources. I imagine that since NLS serves more
>than just the blindness community that this is not their main priority.
>
> While this guy's motives are not pure, he has captured some of the
> frustration that I feel about swimming in a sea of things that only get
> the job done 1/2 way. Because the equipment our school district provided
> our son was constantly breaking down, we've invested well over $10,000 on
> equipment out of our own pocket, only to find out less than a year after
> we bought some of it that it is quickly becoming obsolete.
>
> I'm sure that things have and will continue to improve in the area of
> blindness technology and I appreciate the fact that we need to be
> vigilant.
>
> Thank you for sharing the wider perspective on this topic. I haven't been
> at this for very long and I appreciate hearing more of the story. I think
> it has been valuable to put the topic of mainstream technology out on this
> list and then hear from those of you with more experience.
>
> Sally Thomas
> ----- 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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