[access-uk] Re: Freedom Scientific, between Capitalism and Human Rights, your participation in this crucial dialog is absolutely appreciated

  • From: "goshawk on horseback" <goshawk_on_horseback@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Fri, 3 Jul 2020 16:36:24 +0100

the rest of us may well want that sort of access as well, but the super high price makes jaws unavailable to many of us.
I'm not saying they should provide it for free, but surely providing it at an affordable price, offering an HP option like window-eyes used to, and charging considerably less for upgrades/extras, would get them more customers, as more of us would be able to afford it?

Simon


----- Original Message ----- From: "David Griffith" <daj.griffith@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, July 03, 2020 12:19 AM
Subject: [access-uk] Re: Freedom Scientific, between Capitalism and Human Rights, your participation in this crucial dialog is absolutely appreciated


Whilst I am sympathetic to the frustration expressed here I believe that I will be a Jaws user for the foreseeable future. This is because I consider access not just a matter of principle but of practicality. I want the best possible access solutions currently available on my tech so that I can achieve the best standard of productivity and quality in the admittedly limited hours of work I perform. I am nearly completely retired now but would still urge anybody in employment who is dependent on a screenreader to seek the full range of screen reading assistance available. It is tough enough competing with sighted colleague to provide best value employee performance as good as or better than a sighted employee without sacrificing all the tools at your disposal.
I use not just Jaws but NVDA and Narrator every week in a myriad of tasks. Unfortunately there are a whole range of situations in which NVDA or Narrator just will not cut it and I need to use Jaws. I freely admit there are occasions that NVDA, and increasingly Narrator, will in some tasks perform better than Jaws.
This does not gainsay the truth that Jaws, and especially the Jaws cursor is required in many situations where NVDA and Narrator both fail completely. Just this evening I was having to use a m4b to mp3 convertor. This is completely impossible to use with NVDA and Narrator. Both the add and convert buttons could only be found by the Jaws cursor.
So to put it bluntly I am not prepared to cripple aspect of my access in order to satisfy frustrations against FS. Whether FS can justify all their pricing structures is another matter. I see no realistic way that they could provide Jaws for free. Whilst they remain a third party business and not part of mainstream OS funding I can seen no business model which does not require them to employ staff to keep their products updated in a constantly changing OS environment. An old version of Jaws will simply not work today. . tiff.
The alternative of using largely unpaid volunteer resources with a small core of employees to update products is the route pursued by NVDA, but even here there are costs met by donations and grants from blindness organisations alongside other grants from people like Microsoft. There is really no free lunch.
David G.


On 2 Jul 2020, at 22:09, Mostafa Almahdy <mostafa.almahdy@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Freedom Scientific is the largest manufacturer that produces assistive
technology solutions worldwide. Nonetheless, it manipulates this
throttled market through base policy. At its inception, it charges
visually impaired clients so high to qualify them licensed to use
Jaws, for certain time. After their license period has expired, they
are required to upgrade, through paying substantial amount to
temporarily use the license again and after awhile, it eventually
expires. You are now trapped in this vicious cycle. To perpetually use
their Jaws, you have got to pay them money, relentlessly. And, despite
what they throw at you in their unvalued mendings, updates etc, you
ought to give them money, with a smile. Even scripts which are
additional elements destined to enhance performance, are going to cost
you a fortune. Now, the question here shall naturally be, why? What
for do I need to pay all this, to obtain a not so well given product?
People are generically enslaved to this concept. Jaws has somewhat
influenced its users to unconsciously pay to keep upgraded, without
asking themselves, um, is it really worth it? Freedom Scientific takes
advantage of its broadly mega establishment to tremendously dominate
more people and trammel them into the Jaws immense delusion. I
fortuitously, have wholly emancipated myself from this grave deceit.
Why am I need to be infinitely impounded to such capitalistic entity?
Furthermore, by doing so, Freedom Scientific explicitly violates human
rights declaration recognised by United Nations consignment, which
plainly states, that equal access of information is eminently
professed to everyone. Thence, I mutually urge firm Jaws users and
Freedom Scientific staff to interact with this proposition. I do not
attempt here to politicise the matter. But for certain, this
conversation has got an ethical scope affiliated with it. I am keen to
stiffen this useful discussion and exchange opinions. I personally
feel so comfortable using open source solutions. What about you folks?
Do you feel somewhat compelled to stick to Jaws, despite the fact,
that it costs you more than what it actually deserves? Is the money
you pay worth what Jaws offers? I in this undisclosed list, have
included Freedom Scientific representatives, to hear their perspective
as well. I just hope, not to be shunned, disposed or affronted based
on my sentimental notions. I now look forward to hearing from people,
everywhere across the globe. Thanks for reading, Mustafa



--
(Seeking knowledge is compulsory from cratle to grave because it is a
shoreless ocean.)
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