Re: amazing JAWS offer for those in the UK!
A lot of blindness technologies produced by for profit companies cost a lot of money, although there are more affordable Braille displays now. I imagine part of why these things cost so much is due to the company needing to make enough money to support itself along with paying its employees. There are software engineers, the technical support department, the training department, any staff who work in the building(s), cost of maintaining said building(s), web developers, server costs, etc. Another part is the fact that the blindness market is relatively small compared to the sighted market. Could there be some greed in there as well? Possibly. My point is that most of us probably don't really know what goes on behind the scenes at FS.
Correct me if I'm mistaken, but NVDA doesn't have dedicated technical support, a training department, buildings to maintain, etc. There are definitely costs to maintain NVDA, but somehow I doubt it's as much as for a company like FS who also wants to make a profit. I'd actually be curious to see the comparison.
If FS really wanted to continue milking the market for all it's worth, the home annual program in the US probably wouldn't even exist, and everyone regardless of their employment status would still have to either shell out that $1000 plus tax and cost of SMA or get in touch with an agency. $90 a year really isn't horrible in my opinion, especially if you can still afford things you don't really need like streaming services. It costs less than Amazon prime and probably Dropbox even. The only thing that sucks about it is that the license expires unlike a perpetual. But hey, it's no different than things like Microsoft Office or your paid antivirus solutions. As for other countries, it probably isn't as simple as we'd all like it to be. Lets' also not forget that just about all training materials are free now. You used to have to pay to access some webinars.
Again, I say bring it up on FS Open Line, and I don't mean in a passive-aggressive way. Ask exactly what keeps FS from offering the home annual program in other countries. Ask why their software needs to cost $1000+. If they can't give you the answer during the call, ask them who you can contact to get answers.
All that said, am I defending the high price of JAWS? Not exactly, although it may seem so. I'm simply pointing out the possible reasons why it costs so much. Please consider these things before bashing in the future.
This may explain things as well.
https://blog.freedomscientific.com/exte … workplace/
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