in the US there do not appear to be any subsidies and there should not be because this type of equipment is a want rather than a need. To your other question I'm afraid that's a chicken and egg question. There are to my knowledge less than a dozen blind or visually impaired DSTAR users but, if the radios were out there that number would increase. A number of blind hams have expressed interest in DSTAR but when I explained that an unfortunate shortfall with the radios was that accessibility was not designed into the radios from the beginning they were put off a bit. The dongle is somewhat more usable but the need to be tied to a PC or craptop limits the usability and convenience of the device. As I said if accessibility were built into the radios from the beginning the number of blind and visually impaired users would increase. Perhaps not significantly but more would be able to access the technology. Icomm does make provision for accessibility and computer control in their low band radios so it should not be much of a leap to make the same provisions for an emerging technology such as DSTAR. Ray T. Mahorney WA4WGA UK call sign M0WGA
----- Original Message ----- From: "john_ke5c" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, January 28, 2009 10:47 Subject: [DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: ICOM announced new hand-held and mobile D-STAR transceivers, ID-80 and ID-880 > for those of you who were able to read that page did the usability enhancements go any way toward > accessibility? > Ray T. Mahorney > WA4WGA > UK call sign M0WGA Ray, but what is the size of the accessibility market for DStar radios? How many potential customers are there to offset the development costs required? Are there any government subsidies to offset such costs? Thanks in advance, 73 -- John ------------------------------------ Please TRIM your replies or set your email program not to include the original message in reply unless needed for clarity. ThanksYahoo! Groups Links
