Re: SMA policy was: JAWS update now available
- From: "Yardbird" <yardbird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 24 Jun 2007 10:43:14 -0700
Hi Alan,
Glad some of what I said sounded sensible to you. It's just that the same
well of emotionality seems to surge up every time, and I've found that
consistency worth a ponder, I mean, the poignant complexity of it. My
interest isn't at all abstract, I hope it's clear. Because I know I share a
lot about the mixture of feelings I tried to discern being at work.
as for the grass-is-greener thing, that's interesting. From the exposure I
have to Window Eyes users on another blind tech support list, I have the
impression that the Window eyes people are mostly happy with their product,
as well as sort of cultish in the way Mac users often are in the non-blind
world of computers. By which I don't mean anything sinister, in this
instance. I never have heard any of the WE folks raging against GW Micro, or
making empty threats that they'll switch to Jaws if someone doesn't start
treating them right. But I assume you know more than I do about Window Eyes
users, somehow, and that some of them aspire to move over to Jaws for one
reason or another. Differences of functionality, I have to suppose.
But wow, what a tiny market, with so few products in competition! Sort of
like having two or three models of cars to choose from in the former Soviet
Union, if you could afford one at all. it's no wonder that there's all this
underlying stress, when you factor in this peculiarity along with the other
stuff.
Well, enough of that, I guess. Back to on-topic concerns.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Alan Clendinen" <alanclendinen@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, June 24, 2007 3:15 AM
Subject: Re: SMA policy was: JAWS update now available
Daniel,
That was an eloquent description of our dilemma. I would only add that we
are probably suffering from the "grass is always greener on the other side
of the fence" syndrome. Window-Eyes users entertain similar thoughts of
switching to another screen-reader whenever their chosen program gives them
fits.
Regards,
Alan
Daniel wrote:
Of course I understand. Every time the list has one of its sporadic shudders
of revulsion against FS, the recurrent question is why not switch. If the
disincentives for voting with consumer feet weren't so formidable as they
actually are, so many of us would by now have become Window eyes users that
list traffic here would be vastly reduced. For better or worse. But mostly,
we don't do that foot-vote, and life goes on until the next time there's
occasion for major complaints about the product and/or the tech support. So
I was just catching the fever of that resentment and tossing in my own two
cents' worth of distaste for the Empire, the hegemon of this market. and
now the shudder subsides, and we go on, resigned as always.
Which may sound sad or even pathetic, but I think it's okay. The actual sad
part is the resentment between the lines that I think is engendered by
feelings of helplessness and dependency in the face, first, of needing
adaptive assistance at all, which I think is perfectly natural, and has to
be born with or put out of mind for the sake of sanity, and more to the
point, resentment of the dependency on state rehab agencies for their needed
largesse and for their taking the prerogative to favor the product they've
determined to be the safest bet.
anyway, it's all done, now, and we go on, as usual. Which is okay. And FS
will have its way with signing people up and making it hard for them to
defect, at least in re Jaws. So it goes.
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