That's why I bought my Mac Mini. If Apple was going to do that kind of
stuff to support blind users, I figured to encourage them. When I called
the apple sales department I made sure to explain all of that to the sales
lady. When accessible spreadsheets start showing up, then these might
also be used as office work machines too.
On Fri, 21 Sep 2007, VaShaun Jones wrote:
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]
>
>
>
>
