Of course, the dreamworld would be, yu go to the software developers themself, and ask for a 'developing' copy of their software. Mind you, I said the dreamworld. Try go to places like Corel, and ask them for a free copy of wordperfect, telling them you want to script the software to become more accessible. Well, Corel, was just picked for an example. Very few, if any of the 'big guys' would ever let you have such opportunities. Yet, as for smaller software, there might be chances. That is, software from less aggressive businesses. From your description though, it seems that is not the kind of software you are after.
And, after all, getting your hands on the software itself, is as you rightly described, but a fragtion of the final cost of the app-building project. Fact is, if we decide to hanng on to the example calculation you provided, that I doubt too many organizations even would be willing to pay $1200, just to have a person employed. I.e, if I was the manager of a business, and a blind person came to my office, asking for a job. Well, I look at his papers, decide that he would be an OK add-on to my company; and then learned it would cost me $1200 to taylor my sytem to his needs...? To be honest, unless there would be chances for me to get the money back from the authorities (i.e funds from the government), I'd say he should have PRETTY good qualities, if I should invest that much in employing. Yes, I know it is hard to face, but I have been seeking employment myself for many years, and know what kind of attitude you meet from potential workplaces. And, I guess most of people on the list, would have their experience in this regard. Now, not to encourage your willingness in app-development, I'd say there might be a few approaches. You already have been presented with a few, from others on the list. I could suggest a couple more, but have to say, that the road to success is QUITE long and twisted. Unless you have a certain amount of interest in such a roadrunning, or get together with others forming an organization that could take on their shoulder to raise the funds, I am afraid big projects like you described, would only be for 'big boys' - that is, businesses and organizations that really have the access to funds from before; but who also would call for a HIGHLY professional end-product, and top efficiency throughout the developing periode. One thing that might be a possibility, is to get in touch with local authorities. I don't know what chances would be at your localization, but at least, here I know there is chances to raise money from the authorities, for given projects. Often you would have to make it part of a scientific project, that as far as possible will benefit a bigger group of people. Doubtfully you'd have any success if you put on the table ten people who would be benefitted. On the other hand, if your project would make given services in the public more accessible - that is, if you for instance would build an app that would help making online bill-payment in the bank more accessible, well that is whenn the authorities might want to sponsor your project. Your other way around, could be to get in touch with a local business or organization, who already are running the software you want to make accessible. Sometimes, you might have good luck, in contacting a local department, rather thann talking to some people high up in the herachi. For instance, your local office (or department) might have an older spare computer, and maybe a small corner in their facilities, where you could sit and 'play around'. They might even be able to, and willing to, grant you certain access to their net, for testing purposes. And, you might be able to cooperate with their internal tech personel, so as to get yor hands on as much 'behind the scene' info as possible. All of this, of course, will greatly rely on the understanding attitude of the local manager. Yet, there is a few - actually a good handful - such understanding persons out there. So, if you have access to a local place, where you think they might be running software of the kind here in question, at least it would be worth to pay them a visit, and explain your intentions. Again, I have little and no experience with the software you mentioned in your initial question. Don't know, if any of this could be had secondhanded, from places like EBay. OK, that would most truely mean older versions, but at least give you a cheaper way to get your hands on the software, and should still give you an idea of what is included in scripting the software. The big question though, the way I see it, is if it really is worth. Even if we made a good adjustment on your example calculation, changing the number of people buying your ending product from ten to fifty, you are still looking at a price of more than $200 for each person. Big question then is, how many of those fifty will be willing to pay that much. And, I guess, that was your real point here; how to make the app-building project self-financed. Unfortunately, I doubt there is too many chances, other than in the cases where numerous people would benefit from your job, and where you could go for government-financed projects, or get a handful sponsors from the business world. OK, I do know, that organizations like Lions Club, from time to time, do raise money for certain projects. Never heard them do so for software development or app-building, but still worth to give a try. For instance, Lions Club are running one of the well-established schools for guidedogs over here, and I know they have been raising money for at least a couple of other projects that blind people have benefitted from. Again, they will ask how many will benefit, and to what avail. Yet, I do know of a case, where such money were raised, for an individual. The reason? They viewed this as a project, that would potentially benefit more people. No matter what approach you are taking, you won't have money for such a project - neither tomorrow, nor next week. A pity, I agree. There really should have been an easy way to encourage people who wanted to make the world more accessible. But that is the hard facts of life. ----- Original Message ----- From: RicksPlace To: [email protected] Sent: Wednesday, May 04, 2011 11:03 AM Subject: Getting Software to Script Hi: I want to do some scripting on some professional software for folks who will use the scripts at work or school.Is there a foundation or agency who will provide Third Party software to scriptors for script development? I am thinking about the more expensive packages like the Visual Studio Pro versions and above, the IBM Interfaces, emulators and all that jazz as well as transcription software and other packages that need to be made more accessible to blind folks. The problem is that even to do some serious analysis on a product a scriptor needs to have the product, often prohibitively expensive for the number of scripts that might be sold, and then the scriptor has to find some way to use the product in an environment similar to a typical workplace. This is also dificult since testing a Terminal Emulator or other Mainframe Accessibility tools would not only require having all the necessary hardware and software but a willing host with one or more typical mainframe computers to connect to for testing heavy features like IMS, ISPF, CICS and languages like COBOL etc... There are the Adobe Products and all these product lines have many product choices that would need to be looked at if popular in the visually centered workplace - especially Government where there is suppose to be some serious accessibility qualifications to purchassing or contracting of hardware and software products. My question is if anyone knows of a source of funding for scriptors willing to put in the time and effort to develop scripts. It takes allot of time to analyze and develop a script for a product like Visual Studio and I am sure other product lines from IBM and others. Just to buy a full copy of the Visual Studio would cost about a grand plus the cost of WE plus the cost of the computer, internet connection and any other support software to develop and maintain a script for that product.I can see it easily costing around 2 grand to have a high quality setup with the necessary software and if a scriptor sold say 10 copies in a year the cost would be 2 hundred just to try and break even. The hours required would likely be 1,000 to a full 2,000 hours to get that puppy hunting at a professional level with good documentation and sample packages. At ten dollars an hour the minimum cost would be $10,000 plus the cost of the development environment @ $2,000 for a minimum annual cost of $12,000. So for the 10 units to be sold the first year the cost would be $1,200 per copy. I don't think anyone would pay that. They would just suffer along, not go into this field or use another Screen Reader choice if it were any better. I think they would think anyone asking that kind of money would be nuts - and I would agree. So, there needs to be funding if development on serious Professionally used software is to be done. Folks already working in the field do not have the time to learn scripting and then script any seriously complex software as mentioned above so currently have to find other choices. That is where I am at right now. I have older hardware and software and need to upgrade but can't see just spending the very, very limited resources my family has on more amature software like VB.net or VWD which is what most free amature users use, me too currently. Well, if you know of funding sources or a place where Accessibility Workeres can get copies of expensive software at least, let me know. Thanks: Rick USA
