Re: a proposal, jaws lite shareware by freedom scientific
@Gellman: I agree that it was not so much stated as implied, but as a matter of fact the proof is very much in the pudding, in that these blindness organisations are often bribed for furthering this misery by taking discounts in exchange for volume sales. If you get this technology for your personal use at all, it's because you paid for it out of your own pocket, interest loans inclusive; the only official way to be simply given the technology is as part of a support package for employees. This is bad for the development of blind people who are out of work. Like I said, saving up for a copy of JAWS or other AT is at least something that I'm capable of doing with my benefit, and I'm genuinely grateful for that, but I completely understand the principle of what you're saying. In future, our government is considering moving technology acquisition into its own program, reducing the benefit and its concomitant effects on basic welfare, and thus putting us on a level playing field with our American friends; this will of course further incentivise these back room dealings, and will most likely mean the end of both quality commercial product and choice. At that point, of course, the cost of blindness will be very self-evident. This is why projects like NVDA are so vitally important, irrespective of personal preference.
More generally, given the tendency of both many British and American people to misunderstand socialism at even the most fundamental level as being somehow the enemy of all that is golden, I would venture that this isn't a problem just constrained to blindness, but of course, as blind people we are uniquely in a position to appreciate it first-hand (and I like to think that this just makes us nicer people, too). The problem, for us and for socialism, is that the materialist achievers and those persuaded by them become convinced of some seemingly self-evident and self-fulfilling notion that the only people who deserve to s uffer are quite simply meant to, as punishment for their work-shy and/or mediocre standards, whereas all who achieve immensely at the expense of society as a whole are clearly superior and "Deserved" their good fortune. Capitalism being the prevailing economic system, this narrative is very easy to persuade the public mind of, and very easy to substantiate using illusory slights of hand. Of course, the truth is much more mundane; most people simply want to give and take to benefit everybody. This is really much more about culture and less about practical reality, I think, which makes it all the more worrying that this country is tolerating greater and greater levels of disability hate crime. I can certainly appreciate why living in a socialist country is thus a very great privilege for a blind person irrespective of economic stimulus, and if I had the choice to move to a more socially accommodating country, I'd jump at it.
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