New Linux PDA For Blind People

[John covici]

I disagree -- making a mainstream computer blind friendly costs quite
a lot by someone -- its not just voice synthesis -- its getting the
right info to the synthesizer which costs so much because Microsoft
does not provide the appropriate hooks in theirOS to do it simply and
because applications are not always well behaved -- look at the
trouble they had to do to to make Microsoft Word accessible -- it took
quite a number of man years to do that.

on Thursday 03/30/2006 Scott Howell(s.howell at verizon.net) wrote
 > I only have one question to your statement, why. Wher eis the answer  
 > to the question a vendor will ask. Why should we spend the money on  
 > research and development for such a small group as compared to the  
 > whole. Hey I am not disagreeing with you, but trying to again point  
 > out the very question the manufacturer/vendor will ask. Just because  
 > its the right thing isn't going to be an answer to the shareholders  
 > and those with a financial interest and only are interested in  
 > profits. Isn't that what its all about? Features in any product are a  
 > result of what the masses want, but you can bet that a lot of time  
 > and money went into choosing those features before the product ever  
 > ended up in production. What would be interesting is if a company  
 > would do a survey of sorts or somehow determine if the sighted masses  
 > would enjoy having their e-mail read to them or whatever and see what  
 > kind of feedback they would receive. I think if there was a real  
 > interest, then you can bet products would be made accessable out of  
 > the gate. I think a talking cellphone is a perfect example where  
 > everyone would benefit. Maybe people would spend more time dialing or  
 > selecting a number from the phone book by listening and pay more  
 > attention to watching the road.
 > 
 > 
 > Scott
 > 
 > 
 > 
 > On Mar 30, 2006, at 3:14 PM, Lorenzo Taylor wrote:
 > 
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 > > The voice in a blind-friendly mainstream product should be no  
 > > problem for a
 > > sighted person.  If they don't like it, they don't have to turn it  
 > > on.  It's
 > > that simple.  The concept I'm going with here is that a blind- 
 > > friendly product
 > > won't make a company much money.  This is the excuse given by all  
 > > the companies
 > > out there who are making tons of money off the government agencies  
 > > and blind
 > > people themselves who can make the sacrifice it takes to buy such a  
 > > product.  So
 > > why not make the mainstream product blind friendly at no cost to  
 > > the consumer?
 > > The voice could be turned off by a sighted person if he/she doesn't  
 > > like it, or
 > > better yet, it could be very easilly turned on by a blind person if  
 > > he/she needs
 > > it.  Voice synthesis is extremely cheap to implement now, so it  
 > > wouldn't cost
 > > the manufacturer any additional money to make it work, and it  
 > > wouldn't reduce
 > > the functionality of the device.
 > >
 > > As for the open source mandate in MA, I think it's a good idea.   
 > > It's the
 > > proprietary nature of screen readers for the unfortunately most  
 > > popular OS that
 > > makes it difficult to work with for some blind people.  The screen  
 > > readers for
 > > Windows are based on proprietary technology and for the most part  
 > > only work with
 > > proprietary technology.  This is changing slightly, but not  
 > > enough.  This is what
 > > makes blind people think the state of MA is doing a bad thing by  
 > > trying to cut
 > > costs by switching to a superior open source technology.  Just  
 > > think what the
 > > state was doing when they forced everyone to use Microsoft formats,  
 > > or Microsoft
 > > forced the state to use their formats, whichever you like.
 > >
 > > Lorenzo
 > > - --
 > > Keep American Idol great! Vote for Mandisa!
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 > >
 > > _______________________________________________
 > > Speakup mailing list
 > > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca
 > > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
 > 
 > 
 > _______________________________________________
 > Speakup mailing list
 > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca
 > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

-- 
Your life is like a penny.  You're going to lose it.  The question is:
How do
you spend it?

         John Covici
         covici at ccs.covici.com