New Linux PDA For Blind People

[mo.valli at bt.com]

I believe the groundup developments should be avoided at all costs for many good reasons, but one in particular, and that is that I want to use products that my friends and colleagues use, not some dedicated device which is specially developed just for blind, costs the earth and enhanced at the rate of snail. I want to be in the fast lane, evolving with the latest technology.

KND RGS

Mo.

-----Original Message-----
From: speakup-bounces at braille.uwo.ca
[mailto:speakup-bounces at braille.uwo.ca]On Behalf Of Lorenzo Taylor
Sent: 30 March 2006 17:06
To: Speakup is a screen review system for Linux.
Subject: Re: New Linux PDA For Blind People


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Competitive pricing with mainstream devices is in fact possible.  Last I
read, only about a week ago, there are around 35 million blind and
visually impaired people just in the United States.  And there are much
more around the world.  The reason that only tens of thousands of
assistive devices are sold is because the price is too high for
34,950,000 people to be able to afford to buy them.  Secondly, it is
totally unnecessary to design the hardware from the ground up in most
cases just to accomodate a relatively small group of people.  The
hardware is not the problem most of the time.  It's the software.  And
with all the free and open source software out there now, it is very
easy to reprogram a mainstream device to be more than suitable, and in
fact fun for a blind or visually impaired person to use at very little
if any cost increase over the comparable mainstream device.

And if it is such a challenge to make an assistive device for a disabled
person in mass production even though mainstream hardware could be used
for this purpose, then it is time for the mainstream device
manufacturers to dive into the assistive technology pool and make
software that works on the mainstream hardware that they use so that
there is little if any increase in cost of production.  Apple did it,
and now every Mac has a screen reader built right in, so that a visually
impaired person pays not a penny more than a sighted person does for the
same computer.  Yes, Microsoft should include JAWS with Windows, and
Nokia phones should include Talx at no cost to the consumer.  It can be
and in fact has been done with similar products, and should be done with
all products.  As for things like braille displays, instead of about 20
companies competing to produse 10,000 each and charging as much as a
small car for their products, 1 or 2 companies should be producing 50 to
100,000 units and selling them for an affordable price that a person on
a disibility check or who works at a workshop could afford to pay and
still buy food and pay the bills.  It may be speculation, but I think
they would find that if the price of their device was affordable for
everyone, many, many more people would buy it and they could mass
produce a lot more devices at a lower cost.  Basically, the relatively
low demand for assistive technology doesn't drive up the price.  Rather,
the prohibitive price drives down the demand.

Lorenzo
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