[Nfbf-l] Passing this along: My comments on GW Micro's Window-eyes for Office Users Deal

[Alan Dicey]

Dear Friends,
Passing this along, as I feel it is well written and indeed is good news for 
we the Blind or Visually Impaired.
With Best Regards,
God Bless,
Alan
Plantation, Florida
----- Original Message ----- 
From: David Goldfield
Sent: Wednesday, January 15, 2014 2:46 PM
Subject: My comments on GW Micro's Window-eyes for Office Users Deal

I posted the following message to the discussion list for the Philadelphia 
Computer Users' Group for the Blind and Visually Impaired and I am pasting 
it below, for those interested in what I think about this development.
Here are my thoughts on this breaking story.
First, this caught me totally by surprise and I was quite speechless, which 
is ironic considering that this is all about a piece of software designed to 
make your computer talk.
This move from GW Micro is more than just a great idea or a clever marketing 
strategy.  In my opinion, it represents the end of an era and the beginning 
of a new one regarding the business model of screen reader distribution. 
I've said for some time that our current model, where you pay hundreds of 
dollars for computer access, needs to go away.  With this decision, I 
predict that it soon will.  Yes, we've had NVDA offering users the same 
opportunity to download and use a completely free screen reader since 2009, 
unofficially since 2006.  However, until recently, it wasn't an ideal 
solution for many corporate environments, although it does actually contain 
scripting capabilities, allowing for some under-the-hood customization. 
However, it really wasn't promoted as an access solution for the corporate 
world and it is likely that the majority of NVDA users are home users. 
However, this is not the case for window-eyes, which GW Micro promotes not 
only for home use but also for use in corporate, educational and in 
government working environments.
Now that Window-eyes can be available at no cost for many more people, 
several questions come to mind.  First, how will Freedom Scientific respond? 
They cannot ignore what GW Micro is doing, as doing so could hurt sales of 
JAWS rather badly.  This move won't just make Window-eyes freely available 
to many users who couldn't afford a commercial screen reader.  Once rehab 
agencies begin to hear about this, they may feel that forking out nearly a 
thousand dollars for JAWS won't be such a hot idea.  After all, why buy a 
JAWS license for a consumer if they can just ensure that some version of 
Office is on their computer, which will then allow the consumer to download 
a comparable screen reader at no cost.  FS must respond to this move, if 
they hope to survive.  The same is true for Dolphin's HAL screen reader.
One might also wonder how GW Micro can make money off of this move.  In 
other words, how will they survive this change, as well?  First, users of 
the free window-eyes program must pay to receive support, either by paying 
$25.00 per incident or $99.00 for what they call the 12/12 plan, which gives 
you twelve incidents to be resolved for a 12-month period of time.  The free 
version also does not come with the more human-sounding voices, such as 
Nuance's Vocalizer, which can be purchased for a fee.
During the press conference held by GW Micro, someone asked how giving away 
their flagship product would affect GW Micro.  The questioner asked if they 
were getting something from Microsoft, which to me implied a monetary 
payment of some kind, or might this represent a shift to GW Micro heading 
toward being a nonprofit company.  GW's vice-president said that these were 
good questions and that they would be able to better know the answers in six 
months.  He also said that their partnership with Microsoft allowed them to 
do this.  That, in itself, is a telling response.  Here are my predictions. 
First, this is going to shake up the industry and will bring about some 
major changes in the way access software is distributed.  Finally, I would 
bet a few pieces of rich chocolate that this isn't the last we're going to 
hear about this from GW Micro.  If they don't become a nonprofit access 
provider, I would not be at all surprised if they are either bought by 
Microsoft or at least become the official accessibility arm of Microsoft, 
which is something Microsoft could really use.  Trust me, this is assistive 
tech history in the making.

David Goldfield
Computer Technology Instructor
919 Walnut Street
4th Floor
Philadelphia, PA  19107
215-627-0600 ext 3277
FAX:  215-922-0692
dgoldfie at asb.org
www.asb.org
Give a Donation
http://asb.org/index.php?option=com_jdonation

Serving Philadelphia's and the nation's blind and visually impaired 
population since 1874.
- - -
With Best Regards,
God Bless,
Alan
Plantation, Florida
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