Maybe you should start your own company then. You could probably by a few thousand mainstream devices at a discount and put your own version of the software packages you want on them and then resell them at, what did you say?, $25 over the normal retail price. Good luck. Let me know when you have something because I'd like a PDA but have found the accessible ones out of my price range. At 10:06 AM 3/30/2006, Lorenzo Taylor wrote: >-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- >Hash: SHA1 > >Competitive pricing with mainstream devices is in fact possible. Last I >read, only about a week ago, there are around 35 million blind and >visually impaired people just in the United States. And there are much >more around the world. The reason that only tens of thousands of >assistive devices are sold is because the price is too high for >34,950,000 people to be able to afford to buy them. Secondly, it is >totally unnecessary to design the hardware from the ground up in most >cases just to accomodate a relatively small group of people. The >hardware is not the problem most of the time. It's the software. And >with all the free and open source software out there now, it is very >easy to reprogram a mainstream device to be more than suitable, and in >fact fun for a blind or visually impaired person to use at very little >if any cost increase over the comparable mainstream device. > >And if it is such a challenge to make an assistive device for a disabled >person in mass production even though mainstream hardware could be used >for this purpose, then it is time for the mainstream device >manufacturers to dive into the assistive technology pool and make >software that works on the mainstream hardware that they use so that >there is little if any increase in cost of production. Apple did it, >and now every Mac has a screen reader built right in, so that a visually >impaired person pays not a penny more than a sighted person does for the >same computer. Yes, Microsoft should include JAWS with Windows, and >Nokia phones should include Talx at no cost to the consumer. It can be >and in fact has been done with similar products, and should be done with >all products. As for things like braille displays, instead of about 20 >companies competing to produse 10,000 each and charging as much as a >small car for their products, 1 or 2 companies should be producing 50 to >100,000 units and selling them for an affordable price that a person on >a disibility check or who works at a workshop could afford to pay and >still buy food and pay the bills. It may be speculation, but I think >they would find that if the price of their device was affordable for >everyone, many, many more people would buy it and they could mass >produce a lot more devices at a lower cost. Basically, the relatively >low demand for assistive technology doesn't drive up the price. Rather, >the prohibitive price drives down the demand. > >Lorenzo >- -- >Keep American Idol great! Vote for Mandisa! >-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- >Version: GnuPG v1.4.2.2 (GNU/Linux) > >iD8DBQFELAH8G9IpekrhBfIRAq4jAKCRcls5cS3+xmTBiN/VieV/DmBgGgCfa86e >SspMMU5V2JnTeNLQ4z+9DXk= >=pzu1 >-----END PGP SIGNATURE----- > >_______________________________________________ >Speakup mailing list >Speakup at braille.uwo.ca >http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
