Dear Michele and Others: I wish I could defend manufacturers of adaptive technology and related equipment, but I can't!! Whilst I am thankful that these products do exist and have been used to prove in many situations that a blind person can do a certain job with the right adaptive equipment in hand, it pains me to my stomach knowing how many blind folks WILL NOT GET JOBS because of the prohibitive cost of adaptive equipment. The cost of providing one piece of equipment, even if the government pays for it, is enough to hire 500 sighted employees or more --so, right back to square one!!
I wager that if these products are easy to find on the shelves of computer resale outlets, the price might drop significantly; in a SEGMENTED MARKET, with only a few dealers, and, as they say, limited populations of blind folks all around, we will be at their mercy for a long, long time to come!! I am looking forward to the day when a TALKING INSTALLER can be built into the Windows Operating System so I can install it with minimal sighted assistance. Microsoft CAME SO CLOSE to getting into the screen reader technology business with the implementation of the Narrator in Windows 2000 and XP Operating Systems; however, it has NOT THOUGHT IT FIT to continue with further development and perhaps screen reader developers GANGED UP against it and it had no choice but to bow out before another round of ANTI TRUST SUITS begin. With two children in private school, total cost of $4668 per year, a house mortgage to pay, electric and water bills, bus passes to buy, it will take me longer than three years to find the funds to buy any adaptive technology without help from the government here in the State of Colorado. The plug for that help WILL SOON BE PULLED and I will be STUCK WITH MY ANCIENT AND MODERN TECHNOLOGIES without the option of being able to upgrade them. For the price paid on adaptive equipment, I can possibly buy three to four desktop computers, and may be about two laptops. Perhaps things will change for the better, but I am afraid it MAY NOT HAPPEN in my lifetime, <smile>!! Sincerely, Olusegun
