I believe that I have a few more suggestions for the Braillenote.
But before I present them I will simply state the following. In the
early 90s, many blind persons with whom I was acquainted told me that
they would never use a graphical operating system as it would never be
accessible and it was not designed with the blind in mind. (as if Dos or
Linux were)
What many of those individuals may not have known was, that in the early
90s, there were quite a number of MS-DOS applications that were as
inaccessible as some on this list feel that Microsoft Windows is today.
To me, it isn't whether or not we have a graphical operating system, but
do we have the software and functionality we need to pursue the tasks we
require. It's that simple for me.
As I stated in an earlier post, the Braillenote has excellent Braille
support. It is a device I can use without speech. Last Friday, I was
playing with another product, (can you guess which one, the first
initial is P)and frankly, without speech, that product would not be easy
to use. Again I submit that if the sole purpose for designing the
Braillenote was that blind people are incapable of using a graphical
user interface, I would doubt that I would have ever wanted one. I
believe in usability, and I think the Braillenote has a lot of it in
most of its interface.
However, the problem faced by some of us is that the Braillenote is not
going to be as easy to integrate with other devices as time goes on.
Fewer and fewer printers with parallel ports, fewer and fewer computers
with serial ports, and fewer and fewer printers that the Braillenote can
communicate with, this is the current outlook.
My job (or part of it)
Is to purchase new technology for clients based upon what they will be
required to accomplish with what devices they receive. I have tended to
recommend the Braillenote for many of them because I have felt that the
device was reasonably stable and that it provided great Braille
support. The PacMate, on the other hand, has only recently gained a
fair amount of stability and its Braille support is not all that well
developed.
However, the scales are in the process of tipping, I'm afraid. a Number
of my clients who are students have expressed a need for wireless
network access, the ability to send documents to whatever printer is
available, and they have also begun to express the need for Office 2003
support. These are all things that are not out of range, not beyond what
a portable device should be able to do.
I don't honestly know how many of these things will be addressed without
another motherboard upgrade.
Now, let's talk about service and reliability. My best friend will be
sending her Braillenote in to PulseData/Humanware for the fifth time for
service this week. She received the Braillenote in April, 2002. So,
does that seem reliable? If you had purchased a mainstream product,
like for example, a VCR, a television, or a stereo and you had to ship
it back to the manufacturer 5 times in two years could you honestly
recommend that I go out and buy the same unit?
I received my first Braillenote on January 28, 2001. By march 28 of
that same year, it had crashed beyond recovery. At the time, to their
credit, Humanware sent me a new unit because the motherboard had failed.
However, less than a year later, the same thing happened again. And in
December of 2003, the same thing happened. Again, if I had purchased a
mainstream device and I had had that kind of luck with it, I don't
believe I would be telling all of my friends to rush on out and buy one.
To be fair, my current Braillenote was received on June 5, 2003. Thus
far, it has not required service. (knockin' on wood real hard)
However, without drawing this out, I could relate at least three other
stories of individuals who have had to return their product repeatedly
in order to receive repairs.
To me, even if some of the suggestions that have popped up on this list
do not get implemented, I would like to see a more reliable unit
produced.
Finally, (my ramblin' is nearly don) to some suggestions. I would like
to be able to load a large file in less than 30 seconds or more. I am
not talking about Microsoft Word files, I am speaking of large text
files. I would also like to not be asked if I want to review previous
options. And, you already know how I feel about the file manager.
In closing let me say that I am currently studying a number of products
and ideas that I will have to consider when recommending products for
clients of the Iowa Department for the Blind. And, what my future
recommendations will be will depend largely on how some products evolve
over the next year or so.
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Kirstyn
Sent: Saturday, April 03, 2004 1:23 PM
To: Braillenote List
Subject: re: [Braillenote] Thoughts on Technology, Who Uses What and Why
Hi Beth,
I have a couple of questions. 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? Never mind, I think I will not get the
answer to those questions anyway.
What I most agree with in your post, Beth, is that PDI accepts what
we have to say on this list, whether good or bad. It's the fanatic and
stubborn list member who is having problems listening to observations of
other users when they find them negative to their taste, and it does not
matter anymore if the observations were repeatedly explained to be made
in order to show PDI and users what some of us feel is lacking, what we
hope should be worked on in a reasonable time, and what consequences
some of us are willing to take--like GUI--in exchange for an improved
product.
I apologize for stepping on the toes of the sensitive BrailleNote
user. Also, I said the part about the BrailleNote will soon be limited
to the people with simple computer needs and basic computer skills
because of the philosophy that blind people should be spared from
grappling with graphical user interface, even if it means slower
development of the BrailleNote because they have to write KeySoft
applications than just adopt Pocket PC or whatever will give more
flexibility. Neither did I say that PACMate users are power users, I do
not know where you got that crazy idea. But if the BrailleNote cannot
catch up in terms of what it can offer to the user, then two blind
people on exactly the same job but one is using the PACMate and the
other a BrailleNote will have marked differences in how they do their
job. They may have the same output, but the one using the more powerful
product will have an easier time.
Take Dan's case. If his job requires that he deals with HTML
messages, and let's assume that there was another blind person with the
same job but using a PACMate, then that other blind person will finish
reading the HTML messages while Dan is still saving them to KeyWord
files so that he can open them in KeyWeb and read them properly. Is
this a comparison of the BrailleNote and the PACMate? Yes, but that's
not all there is to it. You must understand that the point here is that
PDI needs to do something about this because since it is not easy to
switch from one PDA to another, the BrailleNote user will somehow
expect--and we do based on our feature requests and suggestions--that
our urgent needs be met somehow.
Tired of repeating herself,
Kirstyn
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