[blindkid] apple netbooks

[Lynda Zwinger]

Holly--the only thing I can think of off-hand is that the word processing
options for iPad (I don't know about netbooks) are not up to speed for high
school, and maybe not even for middle school.  I hear "they" are working on
it....So for now, with an iPad you'd be confined to docs that you can make
with Pages or one of the other apps, which really can't compare to
Microsoft Word (actually, Microsoft Office).  And in our system, they start
with the PowerPoint presentations in middle school, so that's another issue
for you too maybe.

I think you might be better off getting a Dell or some such laptop (cheap,
on-sale) and use it with the refreshable keyboard.  That's what we are
going to do I think for Isaac.  Once he gets over the "I don't know HOW it
got into the washing machine in mid-wash-cyle, Mom...." stage of
development.

fwiw and ymmv and any other acronym I can't remember right now.....

Lynda

On Tue, May 22, 2012 at 10:35 AM, Holly Baker Miller <hollym12 at gmail.com>wrote:

> Still trying to figure things out for our situation.  New braille user,
> middle school, responsible & tech savy.  Has enough vision that jaws
> probably isn't going to be a necessity for him.  His issue is not so much
> with seeing but that he fatigues very quickly when reading visually.
>
> It seems as if buying a good netbook or ipad ($500) + bluetooth braille
> display ($2500) such as the Brailliant 32 would be about half the cost of a
> note taker.
> Aside from the slight downside of having to carry two compact items, why
> does it seem like this is not a popular option for most?
>
> The pluses would be the netbook/ipad could be reasonably replaced every 2-3
> years as the processors get faster & more powerful making it easier to keep
> pace with technology.  Sounds like the maintenance plan on a notetaker
> costs that much.  Even if the display part punks out after a few years, a
> lot less painful to replace that than a full note taker.
>
> Are there other disadvantages I'm not aware of?  Is this something whose
> time has come but it just hasn't quite caught on yet?
> I won't be offended if there's something glaring I haven't thought of!
>
> Holly
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