Hi Ray. I forwarded your info about Panasonic accessible products to a friend of mine. I thought you might be interested, and I thought I'd share her letter to Mr. Wenner. Dear Mr. Wegner, I am the current first vice president of the Michigan Council of the Blind and Visually Impaired, an affiliate of the American Council of the Blind. I recently received a email copy of a letter from a Mr. Slaton that he sent to you regarding accessibility issues and Panasonic. In your response you asked him to let you know if he could come up with information about the number of people who would be interested in an accessible VCR/DVD player. There are so many people across America who are blind or visually impaired that I believe that such a product would be very welcome. It could be marketed through mail order companies who serve people who are blind along with mainstream stores such as J & R Music. IN the past six years Sony offered an accessible talking CD/clock radio, the Sony Sound Machine, which sold for about $130 and was a huge hit among those who have vision problems. Now we have an accessible cell phone, the LGVX4500 which uses a software upgrade to make it accessible. Michigan State University's Electrical Engineering Department recently used its students to develop circuit boards to allow a Whirlpool digital Duet Series washer and dryer to speak so it can be used by someone without any vision. My sister was the recipient of the original prototype of these. These types of engineering projects are often wonderful challenges for students in engineering programs in colleges and universities across America. And of course there is always the possibility of collaborating with companies such as Freedom Scientific, one of the leading developers of talking screen readers and large print computer software for people with vision and reading disabilities. As the babyboomers age, blindness is becoming more common in the form of macular degeneration. I believe it is to every company's advantage to think of the millions of people in America who require adaptations to their products. An affordable talking VCR/DVD player/recorder has been long overdue. It would be nice if you could develop an inexpensive talking universal remote control so that those of us who already own your products could use all of their features. I hope that your company might consider such products, along with others. It is also very helpful to have instruction manuals in alternative formats as well, such as recorded on cassette. Please don't hesitate to contact me if you would like any further information about ways in which Panasonic can provide blindness accessibility to its products. I have always found your electronic products to be very reliable and own several of them. Thank you for your time. Sincerely, Donna Rose, MSW East Lansing, MI 517-333-9117 _______________________________________________ PC-Audio List Help, Guidelines, Archives and more... http://www.pc-audio.org
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