I like this angle. To add: and at the risk of playing politics - if President Elect Trump follows through dismantling free trade agreements, perhaps it is timely to discuss the impact on availability of adaptive technology? If contributors are correct regarding dismissal of dealers, all sorts of bad practices and barriers to overseas customers could emerge.
Vaughan. Please telephone the Regional Disability and Health Team prior to emailing or faxing any new referrals. Vaughan Dodd, Regional Disability Advisor. Desk2desk: 97187. Email: [email protected]. For referrals: email [email protected]. Our up-to-date desk file is located at: http://doogle.ssi.govt.nz/resources/publications/reports-research/regional/auckland/auckland-health-disability-resources.html -----Original Message----- From: Talk [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of David via Talk Sent: Thursday, 24 November 2016 12:21 a.m. To: Sky Mundell; 'Grant Metcalf'; 'Window-Eyes Discussion List' Subject: Re: Response to Dve about WindowEyes and and the Shark Might be so, at least in certain places around the globe. I only could talk from locale perspectives. The Jaws screen reader has for long been a headache for the paying authorities, due to its strictness in copyright and licensing. Besides, one official told me - and note that this is a few years old info, that Jaws was way overpriced locally. At the time, I think Jaws was just about 1000 dollars, in the USA. Locally here, the price without further explanation was near 6000 dollars. Like he expressed it: "Somewhere across the Atlantic, that price multiplies nearly by six." Since the licensing policy of GW was not yet as strict, and though pricing is a bit higher here than in the States, still Window-Eyes turns out the cheaper alternative, it has been the prioritized screen reader of several officials locally. One valid question of course now is, what VFO will do with all the dealers. As it stands, one dealer sold Window-Eyes and SuperNova, the other sold Jaws. Are they both going to be in business outperforming each other? Or, will the one have to leave, and the other be the only alternative on the locale market? If the latter alternative will happen, people will not be able to even make a personal choice, since screen reader manufacturers do not sell directly to end-users outside their home-market. That would definitely force a number of people to leave Windows machines, simply just to get an alternative. I do not know conditions all over the globe, of course I don't, and I am not arguing anything of what you said. But I am ready to claim that business might differ a bit from one part of the world to the other. And the "We are the only ones" idea, might not necessarily be the one that leads to the highest market-share. For many people and local faculties, the end-question is a matter of economy. That, at least, will stay the same all over the planet. What has happened in the past, with several manufacturers, and a number of products to choose from, cannot necessarily be transfered into a situation with one huge actor, and some small ones. It might be smarter to phase things out over a period of time, than to simply just pull the plug. Given enough time, the market might adjust more smoothly. And I am by no means the one to predict what kind of business model will be the one chosen by VFO, or any other actor. I am just making a few observations, doing a bit of general reasoning , and letting you all know that things might have more than one perspective. What seems to be the case from your local perspective, might seem totally different from another perspective. For instance, you claim that they sued the State Agencies, if they did not buy their product? That will work in the States, maybe. Doubt they could get much far with that approach in Europe. There is even laws that are meant to prevent such business activities. Besides, Europe has had their own screen reader manufacturers up through the years, and so is the case with hardware like Braille displays and speech synthesizers. Once they are going International, a company will have to deal with totally different laws and practices from one place to the other. What works in the US, might not even work in Canada, or in Brazil. That's why I am not sure if we should do too much of specculations. Let's face the facts, and discuss them. Scene of this world is rapidly changing. In two years, our screen reader has been sold twice. How long will the new owner keep it? Or, how long will any screen reader even stay in business? Are you totally sure you really want to insist on a screen reader with tomorrow's technology? What if you could have a graphical display - somehow similar to a Braille display, with pins that came up - which gave you a tactile and correct copy of the screen contents? You know longer would need a screen reader to do any interpretation. What you could touch and feel, would be exactly the shape that formed on the visual screen. Sure, were you to have one pin for each pixel on the screen, your tactile display would be tremendously huge and clumsy. But you are already trained to only concentrate on a small part of the screen, and build a complete picture of it all in your brain. Besides, even sighted people now aday, love to stare at their tiny cellphone display, with far less pixels. Imagine you were offered a display, the size of a CD cover, holding a matrix of something like 50 by 60 pins. It would not amount up to anything more pins than what is inside a 40-cell Braille display currently; so the price might not even be all that scarry. The whole unit might be under a p ound, or less than half a kilogram. Each pin on the unit, would represent one pixel on the screen. Small buttons would let you scroll up, down and sideways on the screen; moving the unit round the screen contents. Since it would make a true copy of the shapes on the screen, you don't even have to bother learning Braille. You would not be stopped by undefined graphics, and if the pins could have been raised to different hights, you might even have a way of simplified color notion. What you feel, is what they see! Do you still want a screen reader? Still want to risk that new updates from your software manufacturer will break the screen reader's functionality? Or having to chance on the fact that next generation of soft- or hardware will be compatible with the interface and programming language your screen reader was manufactured under? OK, till now, this all has been a dream. One big show-stopper has been the pricing of Braille cells, or any technology that would resemble such cells. Recently though, we have heard of the neww Braille displays - which apparently will sell for a fraction of the traditional ones. That must mean, that prices on the pins to pop up and down, likely have been greatly reduced. Or, was there anyone manufacturer out there that highly over-priced their traditional units? I only can observe that the pricing issue might not be the biggest issue any longer. Furthermore, I recently read about some interesting development that is currently going on, which might bring things closer to realization, than what we have been used to think. And that was even about a unit that would be the size of a standard PC mouse. For those of you, who happen to be familiar with the old-time product named Optacon, you will have a clue what I am talking about. The rest of you, will have to think a bit non-traditionally here, but still you might want to consider if screen readers is the ABSOLUTE answer for tomorrow. On 11/23/2016 8:02 AM, Sky Mundell wrote: > Hi Grant. Your absolutely right. The reason why JAWS got the government > > agencies was because they sued any state agencies who did not purchase JAWS. > In other words, they threatened the agencies to either buy JAWS or be sued > > and that scared the agencies so much that they began purchasing only JAWS. > As a result, many of the earlier windows screen readers, like Slimware > > Window Bridge, all went out of business. > > -----Original Message----- > From: Talk [mailto:[email protected]] On > > Behalf Of Grant Metcalf via Talk > Sent: Tuesday, November 22, 2016 10:42 > PM > To: David; Window-Eyes Discussion List > Subject: Response to Dve > about WindowEyes and and the Shark > > Hi dave, > You have many good > points with respect to business expenses and compotition. > > Unfortunately, The Shark got the government involved in purchasing their > > product and so made it difficult for other screen reader programs to be as > > well funded as VFO is. I suspect that because the government is so > involved > with JFW it will be the primary product for VFO dispite our > preferences. > Grandpa DOS will never purchase the Shark, but if I change, it will probably > > be to NVDA or perhaps Narrator should I have the money to spend. The > other > unfortunate thing is that all those who have taxable income will be > paying > for the Shark anyway. To often big business and government work > > hand-in-hand. Weep out loud! > > Grandpa DOS > > O > > _______________________________________________ > Any views or opinions presented in this email are solely those of the author > > and do not necessarily represent those of Ai Squared. > > For membership options, visit > http://lists.window-eyes.com/options.cgi/talk-window-eyes.com/skyt%40shaw.ca > . > For subscription options, visit > http://lists.window-eyes.com/listinfo.cgi/talk-window-eyes.com > List archives can be found at > http://lists.window-eyes.com/private.cgi/talk-window-eyes.com > > . > _______________________________________________ Any views or opinions presented in this email are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Ai Squared. For membership options, visit http://lists.window-eyes.com/options.cgi/talk-window-eyes.com/vaughan.dodd001%40msd.govt.nz. 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