Hi Dark, That's a very good question. I'm not really sure what the answer is, but there are ways of getting the news out there if you think of ways of getting maximum exposure and bypassing the RNIB. For instance, you might be able to call up one of your popular news papers, one that is well circulated, and ask them if they will do a story on games for the blind. In there you could nicely put the screws to RNIB by letting people know there are games out there such as Che's card room, All in Play,Jim Kitchen's free games, etc and dropping the fact that the RNIB only seems to support Azabat's games and not making people aware of games such as the GMA titles which would be more appealing to a younger audience. mentioning that Spoonbill offers a number of similar games such as Chess, Uno, Solitaire, etc would most likely get people to look at those websites and see how the RNIB is doing a disservice to the blind over there in the U.K. As for long term finding other organizations and asking them if they could help might open the door to getting more games advertised over there.
As far as the entire issue of patronage goes we have some of that going on over here as well. If you go through a state service such as BSVI, BVR, or Devision of Blind Services to get a computer for college, work, etc you are 99% likely to get an e-machine preloaded with Jaws, Magic, and Openbook. The fact that their are other screen reader developers like GW Micro and Dolphin doesn't seem to register or matter to the state agencies at large. They just go for the most expensive, most well known products developed by Freedom Scientific, and to heck with anyone else. I've often thought that this practice was rediculous as I've used Window-Eyes for a number of years and want the state agencies to treat it as the equal of Jaws and give their clients a choice. Yet they don't. Now, of course, I've become so turned off with Windows that my wife and I have switched to Linux which is rapidly becoming as accessible as triditional Windows products for a lot less money. Want a good free office sweit for Linux get Open Office 3.3. Want a good e-mail/calendar program use Evolution. Want the world's number one web browser get Firefox for Linux. Want to manage your bank accounts and home finances use GNU Cash.Want a low cost screen reader use Orca. Want a free OCR program for scanning/reading books use Simple Scan OCR. All of this is free and accessible so the fact that the state agencies are paying out $2,000 to $3,000 for access technology is a bit extreme given the fact that other alternatives such as Linux are quite litterally cutting the cost of access down to pennies on the dollar. Yet the state isn't willing to look into it. For instance, some time back I was meeting with my BSVI counselor on some job related issues when I pointed out the fact I was now using Linux 90% of the time for work. He was surprised, and didn't even know that there was a screen reader, magnifier, and OCR package out there for blind Linux users. So informed him by booting my laptop and showing off Orca, using Eloquence for Linux, as well as a number of flagship applications like Open Office, Evolution, Firefox, GNU Cash, Pigin Instant Messenger, and so on. He was impressed, but not interested in recommending it to his clients. As he explained it when the state agencies purchase software like Jaws they want all the trappings of commercial products such as technical support by phone, skilled trainers to come out and personally train clients, and of course audio tutorials and that kind of thing. Since Linux uses a different business model while they do offer paid phone support, paid hands on training, etc the majority of day to day support is handled through mailing lists, online wikis, and downloadable guides he felt wasn't good enough for the kind of tech support BSVI is use to getting from say Freedom Scientific. I do see his point, but the issue still remains they are paying hundreds of times more on software than they really need to. The other issue was that BSVI, BVR, etc look at this strictly from a business point of view. If you are getting a job with a credit card company and they use Windows 7 BSVI needs to purchase the software and training for Windows 7 for their blind clients. I don't disagree with him on that point, as that's all too often the case since Windows is still the number one operating system, but the fact they almost always purchase Freedom Scientific products for Windows rather than other Windows alternatives is a bit narrow minded. Why not buy Zoom Text, Window-Eyes, etc rather than Magic and Jaws? He didn't have a good answer for that. So I do understand where you are coming from but on a different issue. Its all about getting the word out there that alternatives exist weather it is GMA vs Azabat, Jaws vs Window-Eyes, or Windows vs Linux doesn't matter. The fact is organizations, state agencies, cherities, etc tend to market a specific type of client at the exclusion of all others who may have a different need than the one they normally service. Cheers! On 4/26/11, dark <d...@xgam.org> wrote: > Hi. > As people might know, I've been doing a lot of work on the > audiogames.net database and something rather odd struck me. > I'm finally adding in descriptions for the azabat games (not the least > because the developer did send me the demo cd about a year ago and I > stil haven't updated them). > Azabat is the only developer of audiogames sold through the rnib. > This is of course because the Azabat's aim, of providing nice old blind > people with easy games to play at exaubitant prices (can you tell I'm not > impressed!), goes along very much with the rnib, an organization who > quite literally don't notice visually impared people under the age of 60 or > so exist, mostly because younger people are less likely to give them > donations in their will, ---- I'm serious! at a so called "information day" > the > rnib spent about two hours just talking about will donations to them, --- > and most of the rest of the time saying how great they were providing > "dayly living skills" services" > the amount of times myself, or another member of my family (most > recently my dad in a survay), has given them what for over this, > whether it's about what books they record (sinse their main producer of > accessible books in this country given that the government does bugger > all), or about what services they provide, they really! don't like the idea > that people younger than about 60, or who have interest outside knitting > and braille crosswords exist (I'm serious, there are several amagazines > devoted to knitting patterns alone, but nothing whatsoever on roleplay). > And if you tell them this they ignore you (the survey lady slammed the > phone down on my dad after he'd said this). > Anyway, getting the wranting train under control,my point is azabat, > dispite producing games which are no better (and in many case not as > good), as others around even in the same catagory like the recently > released pontes backgammon (lacking graphics but having online play), > and all of the spoonbill and blind adrenaline type stuff, yet have a huge > record in this country simply! because they have had publicity through > the Royally nasty inhibition of the blind, aka the rnib (oooh, I made a > funny!). > This doesn't seem correct, but I am now wondering what can be done > about it. > The business of sending myself to site village, the uk tech show didn't > really advance much unfortunately mostly due to booking costs and > such, but possibly a more reasonable organization such as Guide dogs > (who do a lot more than train dogs, ---- I've been skeeing, touring egypt, > cycling and goodness knows what with their holiday crew in the past) > would be open to discussion, especially sinse they do deal with blind > people who aren't the sterriotypical poor old useless individuals the rnib > think they are. > I've already introduced a friend of mine who does voluntry tech support > at a charity for helping disabled computer users in her local area to > audiogames.net and pcs games so she can show people some of the > fun things their computers will do. > When i red The only computer games sold by the rnib" It made me > actually pretty mad, so it's time to do something about it. > Any suggestions for people to contact? ---- I'm not familiar with us or > european organizations, but is there a stink we can kick up? > Action for blind people here (another of the smaller but nicer groups), > did a pole a while ago, maybe it'd be worth seeing if they will do > something else? > Imho this situation needs rectifying, and people need to know there are > more and better developers out there than just Azabat, and games to > appeal to all sorts of tastes. > Beware the grue! > Dark. > --- > Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org > If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to > gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. > You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at > http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. > All messages are archived and can be searched and read at > http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. > If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, > please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. > --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. 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