Not that I know of. Maybe if you round up people you know would want you
to script something particular they can pitch in for the up front costs
of the software. I haven't thought much about how to make additional
money apping software. Blind programmers can make money without
propogating the practice of making blind people pay more to use the same
software as everyone else. If they're good, that is. And if we'd do a
better job networking and collaborating, I'm sure three or four good
scripters could get VS humming in short order. Better yet, three or four
college students. They get it for free and could maybe turn it into a
school project for a software engineering course or something.
On 5/4/2011 5:03 AM, RicksPlace wrote:
Hi: I want to do some scripting on some professional software for
folks who will use the scripts at work or school.Is there a
foundation or agency who will provide Third Party software
to scriptors for script development? I am thinking about the more
expensive packages like the Visual Studio Pro versions and above, the
IBM Interfaces, emulators and all that jazz as well as transcription
software and other packages that need to be made more accessible to
blind folks. The problem is that even to do some serious analysis on a
product a scriptor needs to have the product, often prohibitively
expensive for the number of scripts that might be sold, and then the
scriptor has to find some way to use the product in an environment
similar to a typical workplace. This is also dificult since testing a
Terminal Emulator or other Mainframe Accessibility tools would not
only require having all the necessary hardware and software but a
willing host with one or more typical mainframe computers to connect
to for testing heavy features like IMS, ISPF, CICS and languages like
COBOL etc...
There are the Adobe Products and all these product lines have many
product choices that would need to be looked at if popular in the
visually centered workplace - especially Government where there is
suppose to be some serious accessibility qualifications to purchassing
or contracting of hardware and software products.
My question is if anyone knows of a source of funding for scriptors
willing to put in the time and effort to develop scripts. It takes
allot of time to analyze and develop a script for a product like
Visual Studio and I am sure other product lines from IBM and others.
Just to buy a full copy of the Visual Studio would cost about a grand
plus the cost of WE plus the cost of the computer, internet connection
and any other support software to develop and maintain a script for
that product.I can see it easily costing around 2 grand to have a high
quality setup with the necessary software and if a scriptor sold say
10 copies in a year the cost would be 2 hundred just to try and break
even. The hours required would likely be 1,000 to a full 2,000 hours
to get that puppy hunting at a professional level with good
documentation and sample packages. At ten dollars an hour the minimum
cost would be $10,000 plus the cost of the development environment @
$2,000 for a minimum annual cost of $12,000. So for the 10 units to be
sold the first year the cost would be $1,200 per copy. I don't think
anyone would pay that. They would just suffer along, not go into this
field or use another Screen Reader choice if it were any better.
I think they would think anyone asking that kind of money would be
nuts - and I would agree. So, there needs to be funding if development
on serious Professionally used software is to be done. Folks already
working in the field do not have the time to learn scripting and then
script any seriously complex software as mentioned above so currently
have to find other choices.
That is where I am at right now. I have older hardware and software
and need to upgrade but can't see just spending the very, very limited
resources my family has on more amature software like VB.net or VWD
which is what most free amature users use, me too currently.
Well, if you know of funding sources or a place where Accessibility
Workeres can get copies of expensive software at least, let me know.
Thanks:
Rick USA
