HI Yuma, You're not wrong, just impatient. It's perfectly understandable, but you have to realize that change is coming and try not to let it get you down. Unfortunately, my clients are blind now, and their quality of life is at least as important now as it will be 2 to 5 years from now. Some of them may not even have that long. I have to put things in their hands that make their lives better, regardless of how I feel about the companies that make the products or the policies they operate on. Obviously if there is a way to do both, I am all for it, and we're seeing more and more opportunities for common ground all the time. The other thing is, I need to make my clients feel confident in the products they are getting. If I demo this IPal and tell some one it's overpriced and underrated, but they should buy it anyway because it does the job, they will feel as if they are wasting their time and money. They'll feel cheated before they even buy the thing and they'll cheat themselves of the opportunity for independence. I'll cheat them by making them feel bad bout getting an expensive piece of kit because it's overpriced and underrated and I don't want them putting money in the pockets of some greedy blind exploiting bastard. Is that more right than a company charging gouging prices for a product just because it's built specifically to serve the blind, even though it's 100% constructed from technologies that are available on the commercial market for a tenth of the price?
The other thing you don't seem to have considered is that unlike the commercial market, the market for access technology is driven not buy users, but buy funders. In other words, I might buy an eyepal in February, but the money won't come out of my pocket. My government will pay for it, even though I may have to get creative in order to make that happen. Service clubs, church groups, insurance companies, and others of varying degrees of wealth and power put these things in our hands and hope that we won't question too closely. These people don't actually use the technologies, but they have ways of syphoning off money earmarked for supporting blind people as part of paying for all this high priced kit. There's a reason why the price of jaws and window-eyes hasn't changed in 15 or 20 years. That reason is because governments, corporations, and other funders are willing to continue paying. At some point there will be an upheaval, at least in the province of ontario there will be. Tech funding was just recently cut. It's going to be cut again in two years. There's even a reputable industry professional here quietly asking everyone in the blind community to take their jaws funding whether they want it or not, and not to talk about apple in professional circles. His reasoning is that if it becomes obvious to the dullerds in the agency that any one can go out and by a mac or vinux machine off the shelf and use it, they will cancel the entire funding program. That means, no braille displays. No reading machines. No portable notetakers. ...nothing. All because some one realized that computers can be accessible off the shelf. And the thing is, he's not wrong. If that happens, we'll all be out of luck, and a lot of very powerful people behind the scenes will be as well. Boo hoo. Personally, I'll be OK with it when low end windows screen readers are well and truly on par with the high end ones, and when the electropolimer braille display becomes a reality, but for now we've got to work in the system the way it is and hope it lasts long enough to get us through the transition to lower priced and equally functional technology. So even though the whole situation is crap, there's no use getting hot an bothered. It doesn't help anyone. Best, Erik Burggraaf User support consultant, Now posting occasionally on twitter at eburggraaf, 1-888-255-5194 http://www.erik-burggraaf.com On 2010-12-12, at 11:03 AM, Yuma Decaux wrote: > Thanks Eric for the explanation. > > > Assistive tech is a rather new subject to me, and my perspective is still > anchored in the mind of a sighted person who would rather spend 2k on his > kid's education, a new laptop or a great hoiday than 2k on a device that's > grossly overpriced and would last only a year before it looses value faster > than i can regenrate funds for as there are many other things in life to > consider. > I totally understand your position, that you actually test these devices, > demo them to elderly people who probably have had sight most of their lives, > and therefore don't much as mind spending 2k as the majority could afford it > or wouldn't have the energy to go to Africa for example with hiking boots and > a photography setup for blind individuals as an alternative source of > entertainment. > > Even after having crossed the line between sighted and blind, moreso now that > i understand all the difficulties i have doing a lot of things i used to take > for granted, the fact that these greedy corporations barricade themselves > behind production costs to justify their prices. I just have a very hard time > apprehending entities, individuals corporations, governments. Whatever you > want, to make a profit on those who are fighting everyday for a better chance > to just read books or quickly checking snail mail for crying out loud. > > There has to be a change in this trend, and it has to come from the > convergence of intellectual property, associative enterprising and the > exposure of current corporate philosophies where it hurts. > > There was a recent Lecture over here in AUckland Uni about the favorable > switch the economic world has to experience before it can actually get > better, and that is for corporations to stop artificial market injections and > follow a more benevolent style of making business. The modern world is > generating much more by working together rather than taking things behind > closed doors, the threat of patent infringement and come-up with a device > that's half-baked, has a life expectancy close to a percent of a human or > canine lifetime, with eye gouging prices, and it also probably looks like a > tentacle from hell Or a monolithic slab from stanley kubrick's imagination. > > Taking this into context with what used to be, and looking at what it has > done to people now you can't help but be cynical. Like you mention it, it's > not what it used to be. Is that because those corporations who make assistive > devices are all trying to squeeze the most out of every cent they spend? And > more? And what is their R&D capacity? What's the percentage they funnel back > into research, and how many products do they have to support their > production? > Those are the questions i ask myself when i buy a product that's pricy, like > a bang and olufsen speaker or a mini austen instead of a second hand peugeot. > There are incentives to these products, they are extremely durable, known, > and best of all, don't loose value. Imagine having a Sony Ericsson Honda > collaboration for a snap scanner text reader or an apple bang and olufsen > retinal implant. This is a utopic jerk of my current existential state that > will gratify an early morning stint to the coffee machine, soon to evaporate > like the steam off the mug, but reflection on how to reach this type of world > is worth a thousand expresso shots. > > Oh, and i'm definetely not buying any assistive crap anytime soon Unless they > come clean with their stuff, and that's stuff that works out of the box. > > > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MacVisionaries" group. > To post to this group, send email to macvisionar...@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to macvisionar...@googlegroups.com. 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