[blindkid] Looking forward

[Heather]

Having things in our world and our society made accessable just for us is
really a shame.  It is so gratifying when things are just naturally
accessable.  Even if they are not perfect, the joy of having a
non-stigmatizing, stylish, functional product is a nice little personal high
for me.  For instance.  I was looking for toys for Jeremy when he was 12
months old, and after discarding several very expensive adaptive toys, I
found a mainstream telephone toy that would speak the numbers on the
telephone keypad when pressed, that had several spoken game modes and
selection options for changing the language of the voice.  He loves it annd
it is really a neat item.  I saw tons of adaptive items, such as sensory
stimulating toys, designed for blind babies, and as an early childhood
educator I ask, WHY?  All infants should have tons of visual, tactal,
auditory, etc stimulation.  The really quality toy companies that produce
educational toys already make toys that are plenty stimulating to blind
infants.  Most of the games we have are ones that we have adapted, as it is
a fraction of the cost, of buying a fully adapted monopoly or battleship
game, but we have some really awsum games that are already perfectly
accessable.  For instance, the game say what is a neat mainstream party game
that is fun as heck and appropriate for kids and adults, and it required no
stickers or labels or markers of any kind.  We opened it up and went to
town.  I, personally, am willing and happy to embrace technologies that have
built in accessability, but might be a touch less functional than blatently
adaptive, specialized technology that is much more expensive.  If I have a
problem with my Braille note in class, the best I can do is scamper through
the mannuel or call a blind friend on my cell after class for suggestions.
If my laptop gets upset, I can tap someone on the shoulder, slide my laptop
over to them and make a sad cute comment about my laptop having the hickups,
and voila, conversation is struck up, laptop problem is almost always fixed
and sometimes a new friendship is struck up.  I love technologies that
sighted people can discover, for good gift giving, that doesn't require them
to delve headfirst into the daunting world of Freedom Scientific or
Independent Living Aids.  For instance, for my first birthday, after we
started dating, my fiance got me a very simple, functional MP3 player, very
cost effective and just right for my needs, a TMUVO100, that required no
special software, was made in designer colors and wasn't specialized or
stigmatizing in anyway.  I get offended, yes, truly offended when people get
me brailled birthday cards.  You know, the generic ones that come
prebrailled, with the same lame message and picture description every year.
I have gotten the same damn card over twenty times, and if I get it again,
from one more person, I am going to scream and make them eat it.  That sends
the message that they are thinking of me as a blind person first and not as
who I am really.  If they knew me, really knew me, they would have either
skipped the card, because they know I like to go green, would have gotten me
an inaccessible, but wildly amusing  and unique card that they know would 
apeal to my
sense of humor, or would have found a card with a cut out, raised writing or
a sound chip in it, that isn't made especially for blind people, but is able 
to
be apreciated by one.  Products like, say an Ipod touch are a step in the
right dirrection to people thinking of us as Heather who happens to be blind
and Mike who happens to be blind and Vanessa who happens to be blind,
instead of Heather, that blind girl in my class, and Vanessa, the girl with
the cute guide dog.  So, for psychological and social reasons especially, 
mainstream products that are accessible out of the box are the best option, 
when they are an option, as I realize that not all things are going to be.
----- 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: Thursday, March 04, 2010 9:31 AM
Subject: Re: [blindkid] Looking forward


> 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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