Software speech opinions

[Doug Sutherland]

I used to have resources for some R&D and did many things. One was
to get a "special" keyboard designed for people with limited motor skills,
to find out what was so special about it, and why it was so damn
expesive. Granted it was more expensive than a normal keyboard, had
proximity sensors and audible feedback, and somebody had to write
some custom firmware, but at $450 for a keyboard that was an
astounding sum. If you look beyond stuff like just software, to the whole
assistive tech market in general, you see inflated prices that as I said, I
consider to be obscene.

Software can be free, yes, but that doesn't solve many other needs. Much
work needs to be done and it can't all be free, or the advancement is
limited. As long as assistive tech is considered to be something that is so
radically different that the only answer is "there are grants for that" then
choices are limited and some of the much needed R&D doesn't get done.
I personally believe most people are missing something important, that
some of these assistive tech ideas are ones that many people need. Take
speech tech for example, people can't look at a computer screen while
they are driving, and not really efficiently while walking. They do not
need to be disabled in any way to benefit from speech and many other
assistive technologies.

Work on all of these things are more globally desireable than one would
think if you break them down into parts. Take a keyboard for example,
there should be multiple modalities available as the input to anything and
the output from everything in the long term. I'm all for open source but
then to expect everything to be free means, at least to some degree, you
get what you pay for. People will pay for good tech, if it's fair priced.
At least part of what is happening, the part I don't like, is that for some
things, they are intentionally so expensive that nobody can afford them
without some subsidy, grant, insurance, or some other bueroctratic
process. More comptetition would actually drive prices down. More
people making products would be a good thing. If all assistive tech
was done for free then it would only ever be hobby activity, it will
never put food on the table of people who produce it.

  -- Doug