Yeah you are right. I was having this discussion on one of the cell phone
list and they were getting pissed. I was asking how much does a PC with a
screen reader really cost you in the short and long term. I am a power user
and don't use the low end PC's so you take the computer cost and throw a
JAWS or Window Eyes on it and you have paid thousands of dollars. I can
spend the same amount of money and get two Mac's for the price. I have
converted 2 people and it feels good when they ask me does it do this and
does it do that and I can not only say yes, but I can say it does it better.
Then you get in the conversations about what is better and I tell them about
the ease of use...A newly converted fan boy.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dan Keys" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "General discussions on all topics relating to the use of Mac OS X by
theblind" <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, September 21, 2007 10:08 AM
Subject: Re: Prices for adaptive equipment overseas
Hello Greg and list,
Thanks for posting this. The more people know about the sometimes price
gouging that goes on with assistive technologies, the better informed we
can be. Perhaps if enough people are aware of it, something might be
changed.
My hat's off to Apple. After all, every machine sold from the Mac mini to
the top of the line, all have screen reading and magnification built in
and it doesn't break the bank either. I wonder how many units that would
be. I would guess, probably well over a million worldwide. And shipping
costs are reasonable.
Dan
On Sep 21, 2007, at 5:52 AM, Greg Kearney wrote:
Some of you might find this interesting.
Consider, if you will, the standard Perkins brailler. A well made device
which has stood the test of time I think we all would agree. Retail for
a new Perkins brailler is US$690.00. (A$802.70) Expensive, yes but worth
it for a device that is expected to last for many decades of use.
Now consider that Perkins will ship the brailler you order online to
anywhere in the word for free. "Free Matter for the Blind" is an
international postal convention not just in the U.S. and Canada.
Now comes the racket. In Australia, as in most places braillers are
purchased by by governmental or quasi-governmental agencies. In
Australia all of these must place their orders through an outfit known
as Vision Australia that charges A$1325.00 or US$1138.97 for a Perkins
brailler. Or in other words a A$336.27 or US$289.06 markup thats a
20.2% markup on each brailler sold. Not bad when you consider that
Vision Australia gets braillers shipped to them at no cost.
But it's not just Vision Australia, and in fact they are far from the
worst offenders. Consider JAWS in Australia. In the US it goes for
US$895.00 (A$1041.18) a lot of money and then there is the constant
updating costs as well. In Australia the same product with the same
English voices sells for A$2395.00 or US$2058.74 a markup of
A$1353.83 (US$1163.75) or a 32.7% markup. The cost of shipping
packages to Australia can't be that much and if Freedom Scientific
wanted to they could send electronic packages to Australia at no cost
and have them printed and packaged there at far less than A$1353.83.
This kind of thing, I am told is common with JAWS being marked up at
similar rates in Europe as well. No wonder that in some rehabilitation
setting in Australia the blind are advised to get Macintosh computers.
Apple for example charges A$1148 (US$968.82) in Australia for a top of
the line MacMini, which includes the screen reader. In the U.S. the same
computer sells for US$799 (A $929.50) or a markup of just A$39.32 or just
4%
Someone in the Australian media should look into this.
Greg
Greg Kearney
535 S. Jackson St.
Casper, Wyoming 82601
307-224-4022
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
