Hogwash!
Why should anyone else care more than us? We are the ones
interested. We don't want to misuse our disability this way.
Besides, what if people just say to us, "You already have options"?
Ben Moser
Sent from my iPhone
On Mar 29, 2012, at 3:06 PM, "Gene" <gsasner@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> I want to make this as clear as possible to avoid misunderstanding. I am
> not saying that blind people should not contribute to NVDA. At this time,
> it is a worty goal to help NVDA continue to be developed. there is a
> serious shortage of funding at present. But I consider it unacceptable
> for the long term that NVDA be heavily dependent on contributions from
> users. If NVDA is free for blind people, then it should be truly free,
> not free but with unending appeals to guilt and for money from users. If
> that is going to be the future, it is not truly free to blind users. It's
> far past time to do more than rely on grants and user contributions.
> Perhaps professional fund-raisers should be hired. Perhaps the experience
> and advice of organizations of and for the blind who do successful
> fund-raising should be sought. I don't see guide dog schools relying
> primarily on guide dog users for support. I don't see the Hadley school
> relying primarily on blind users for support.
>
> Organizations of and for blind people, while they do solicit contributions
> from blind people, generally have a much wider gbase of funding. It's far
> past time that serious attention be given to how NVDA may be funded
> without heavy dependence on the user base. either NVDA is a truly free
> screen-reader or it's a screen-reader with lots of guilt attached and
> pressure to contribute and that is not free.
>
> Gene
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Mesar Hameed" <mesar.hameed@xxxxxxxxx>
> To: <NVDA-support@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>; <nvda-dev@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>;
> <nvda@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Cc: <nvda-translations@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2012 1:15 PM
>> Dear nvda users,
>>
>> Sorry for the long email, please bare with us to the end.
>>
>> The time has come to show your appreciation and your determination for
>> NVDA development to continue.
>> Due to the economic downturn NV Access has received less grants than what
>> we would have hoped for.
>>
>> We all have a duty and an obligation to request from the organizations
>> working for the blind such as the RNIB, UK or AFB/NFB, USA or the
>> appropriate blind organization in your country, to tell them that NVDA has
>> been and continues to be a useful and valuable tool to provide
>> accessibility for all of us and that they should promote and sponsor the
>> excellent work that is being done.
>>
>> Despite all the politics and the slow movement within organizations, we
>> the real NVDA users are able to keep NVDA development going
>> if each one of us took their responsibility seriously.
>> This is without having to wait for organizations or companies to give
>> grants to NV Access.
>>
>> Due to many advantages, benefits and unique features of NVDA, the number
>> of NVDA users are growing but sadly the personal donations are not
>> matching this increase and are often not regular.
>>
>> What we want to say clearly is that any regular donation large or small,
>> will keep Jamie and Michael in their full time employment working for
>> NVDA.
>> What we have to remember is that they are two blind individuals like you
>> and me, but are gifted with rare skills that many of us could benefit
>> from.
>>
>> We should work hard not to put them in a situation where they have to
>> choose between doing something that they love and beleave in (improving
>> NVDA), and having to provide the necessities for their families and
>> children.
>>
>> The current funding is able to keep both of them employed until september
>> this year, and if the donations haven't increased by then
>> they may have to look for alternative employment.
>>
>> Even if one of them leaves and the other continues the work load will be
>> a lot harder, and progress will be much slower.
>> This will directly impact on us because we will have to wait for much
>> longer before tickets can be solved, which will cause us a lot of
>> frustration and anguish. This is not what we have been accustomed to in
>> the last few years, we often see regular releases and each version is
>> superior to the previous one.
>>
>> We all need to understand that, what is required is for each one of us to
>> donate according to our circumstances, may it be as little as 5 or 10
>> dollars a month, this will be enough to keep the project going.
>> We Thank those of you who already donate on a regular basis.
>>
>> Put this in context, we easely spend 5 dollars on a coffee
>> or 10/20 dollars on a meal when we eat out, surely NVDA deserves this
>> token amount?
>>
>> Many people do charity events, such as running a marathon, doing a tandem
>> ride, or baking and seling cakes in their community to raise money for
>> canser research or any other worth while charity, we can all do the same
>> but for NV Access which is also a charity.
>>
>> Please don't lose this opportunity to support NVDA, because if we fail to
>> set up regular donations, in a few months time we will all have to start
>> paying for expensive screenreaders because NVDA would not have been
>> developed and updated to match our latest needs.
>>
>> We are writing this email as individuals that strongly believe in open
>> source, and as volunteer contributors to NVDA. We understand that it is
>> hard for Jamie and Michael to keep sending emails asking for donations
>> because it feels bad to keep asking, but we the users should act before we
>> reach the point of no return.
>>
>> Please repost/translate or anything that you feel appropriate, and please
>> don't forget to raise donations.
>>
>> Link for donations:
>> http://www.nvaccess.org/wiki/Donate
>>
>> Thank you,
>> Mesar, and NVDA translators.
>> Come talk with other NVDA users on irc.blufudge.net #NVDA
>> Your continued donations help keep NVDA development going strong. Donate
>> at:
>> http://www.nvaccess.org/wiki/Donate
>> Or by purchasing voices from Ivona TTS:
>> http://www.ivona.com/accessibility.php
>> Use the following link with the code STOR-4NS3-DSCT to save 10% on Voices
>> from nextup.com:
>> http://bit.ly/eJN97w
>> To post messages to the list send email to
>> nvda@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> To modify your NVDA Email settings or view archives go to:
>> http://www.freelists.org/list/nvda
>> NVDA homepage:
>> http://www.nvda-project.org/
>> NVDA on Facebook:
>> http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8601265515
>> The NVDA controler DLL is at:
>> http://www.nvda-project.org/nvdaControllerClient/
>> NVDA Snapshot Downloader:
>> http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1473937/NVDASD-v2.0.2.exe
>> Get SkypeTalking for NVDA:
>> http://skypetalking.googlecode.com/
>>
>>
>
>
> Come talk with other NVDA users on irc.blufudge.net #NVDA
> Your continued donations help keep NVDA development going strong.
Donate at:
> http://www.nvaccess.org/wiki/Donate
> Or by purchasing voices from Ivona TTS:
> http://www.ivona.com/accessibility.php
> Use the following link with the code STOR-4NS3-DSCT to save 10%
on Voices from nextup.com:
> http://bit.ly/eJN97w
> To post messages to the list send email to
> nvda@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> To modify your NVDA Email settings or view archives go to:
> http://www.freelists.org/list/nvda
> NVDA homepage:
> http://www.nvda-project.org/
> NVDA on Facebook:
> http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8601265515
> The NVDA controler DLL is at:
> http://www.nvda-project.org/nvdaControllerClient/
> NVDA Snapshot Downloader:
> http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1473937/NVDASD-v2.0.2.exe
> Get SkypeTalking for NVDA:
> http://skypetalking.googlecode.com/
Come talk with other NVDA users on irc.blufudge.net #NVDA
Your continued donations help keep NVDA development going strong. Donate at:
http://www.nvaccess.org/wiki/Donate
Or by purchasing voices from Ivona TTS:
http://www.ivona.com/accessibility.php
Use the following link with the code STOR-4NS3-DSCT to save 10% on
Voices from nextup.com:
http://bit.ly/eJN97w
To post messages to the list send email to
nvda@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
To modify your NVDA Email settings or view archives go to:
http://www.freelists.org/list/nvda
NVDA homepage:
http://www.nvda-project.org/
NVDA on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid?01265515
The NVDA controler DLL is at:
http://www.nvda-project.org/nvdaControllerClient/
NVDA Snapshot Downloader:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1473937/NVDASD-v2.0.2.exe
Get SkypeTalking for NVDA:
http://skypetalking.googlecode.com/