-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 According to David Poehlman: # 2> No matter how low the price point, it willl be too high for # someone. A decent car costs a big dollar, but we have plenty of # chances to be run over bby them around here. This is very true. The same is true for the mainstream PDA. Not everyone can afford to buy one, even at today's prices. The point is that a much lower percentage of blind and visually impaired people are able to afford to buy devices that they need than the percentage of sighted people who can afford to buy equivalent devices due to the extremely prohibitive cost of assistive technology, which unlike the cost of mainstream technology increases every couple of years rather than decreasing over time. Take the Braille 'n Speak as an example. The thing can't even get on the internet, unless that has changed in the last 2 or 3 years. In 1990 when I first saw one, my teacher at school told me they were $1000. Now, that same device, although it has advanced very little compaired to most other technology, is $1395, nearly $400 more than it was 16 years ago. On the other hand, the average low-end PDA, which can do at least as much as the Braille 'n Speak, now goes on sale for $149.99, only slightly more than a tenth of the cost of the Braille 'n Speak. And in 1990, if technology would have been available to make today's low-end PDA, it probably would have been around $1500 to $2000. And a much higher percentage of any population can afford to pay $149.99 than can afford to pay $1395. HTH, Lorenzo - -- Keep American Idol great! Vote for Mandisa! -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.2.2 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFELVgcG9IpekrhBfIRAtKlAJ9fghyKhCT+inoJ3+pE9I8W+cutDgCgq+Nc lGSJR41VcwuEM2yZaWet5jQ= =ky/9 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
