Date: Thu, 23 Mar 2000 14:24:36 -500
From: Brent Reynolds <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: FEMA'S WEBSITE IS NOW AVAILABLE TO NET-TAMER!
HI, Walter,
That mouse you mentioned that supposedly enables the blind to "feel" their
way around a website and activate icons is a little beastie that costs
almost a thousand dollars. I have not yet seen the beast, so I can not
vouch for its efficacy or lack thereof. My first reaction upon hearing
about it and reading some information about how it is supposed to work and
what it is designed to do is that it sounds like yet another
well-intentioned, but poorly-thought-through device designed to help blind
people, dreamed up and produced by a person who has little if any knowledge
about blind people and how they access information, and who never bothered
to consult with blind people, or have them seriously test the concept and
provide seriously taken input one way or another. The price alone would
render it all but out of reach of about 90 percent of the people who might
benefit from it, unless of course the developers could convince some
government-funded agency that we need it and should have it, and they should
buy it.
In the world of access technology products for blind people in the computer
industry, "mass" market items sell in the high hundreds, or maybe very low
thousand type numbers on a monthly basis at best. Economies of scale of
mass production never enter into the picture. The idea should probably be
pursued, and it might actually lead to something useful, but it is too early
to tell at this point.
Reply to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Brent Reynolds, Atlanta, GA USA
Net-Tamer V 1.12 Beta - Registered
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