Hi Kirstyn and all,
Sorry for the delay in getting back to you, homework and classes have kept
me very busy.<smile>
I hate huge long quoted messages, so I'll try and keep this short and to the
point.
First, sometimes email is not the best means of communication when
lots of messages and discussions occur. I had no intention of putting words
in your mouth that weren't there of course. I think there is no problem in
comparing devices and getting the most bang for your buck. It sounded to me
that your message implied that users of the BrailleNote were not power
users, but of course as you said, you didn't outright say this. I had no
wish to offend you, and if I said something out of turn, I apologize.
In your message to me you said:
Who was criticizing people for choosing the BrailleNote and not the PacMate,
or for choosing the PacMate and not the BrailleNote? Why is it so hard to
get one's point across, and yet people like you say we should try to
understand where each person is coming from?
Kirstyn, I am trying to understand where you're coming from, that's
why I'm writing back to you.<smile> It appears that this issue has been
going around and around the list for some time before I subscribed to it and
I have no wish to drive everyone nuts by knocking it around for no purpose.
I saw some rather frustrated messages on your part and others, and I only
wished to have a calmer discussion on the BrailleNote, its good points, its
needs for improvement, and constructive feedback to Pulsedata.
Your points about using any kind of PDA on the job are well taken.
In my opinion, in my job experience in providing technical support to blind
and sighted computer users, I needed to use a computer while in the office
equipped with the same software my colleagues used, at this time, it was
Windows NT and several graphically based programs like Office and the help
desk database my company logged complaints into for management. If I had
access to a PDA at that time, it would have been used to take notes in
meetings, prepare training manuals for new employees, and read technical
documents. I totally agree with you that it would be a bad thing for the
BrailleNote, PacMate, or any other technology for the blind to not keep up
with the cutting edge of technology. If vendors can't do this, then we'll
be left behind in terms of PDA's and we'll have to go out and find other
ways of doing things to get the job done. I hope that vendors will listen
to our concerns and not left it get to that point. For instance, I as a
good JAWS user could probably use a PacMate fairly easily. However, for me
personally, I picked the BrailleNote because it has in my opinion, Braille
support that works well without speech, it's the best Braille support I've
personally found, so though I could use other devices, I made Braille
support my top priority. I can't speak for others who may have different
needs and priorities. I have ready access to computers at home and at
school, so I don't need some of the things the PacMate has, but others may
and I want them to have that opportunity.
For your example of someone needing to read HTML messages, here
again, it's a question o needs and priorities. If your person needing HTML
documents is in the office where there is a computer, I think the computer
would work better then the BrailleNote or the Pacmate for reading those
messages in HTML. However, the point of having a PDA is for portability, so
of course the web browsers in both devices should be improved if they are
not meeting the needs of the users. I can't really comment further on the
web browser since I normally don't use the BrailleNote for internet yet, I
usually have access to the computer when I need to access the internet so
I'll let you and others who know about the needs of KewWeb to deal with that
problem as you're more knowledgeable then I on that issue.
I am sorry that you feel you must repeat yourself. Since I missed
your messages the first time accept for the one I replied to, I am sorry if
you feel I'm not listening to you. I am listening, I hear you, and I'm
trying to understand where you're coming from.<smile>
If you wish to discuss this privately as this topic seems to be
annoying some, write to me at: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Beth
