[access-uk] Re: RNIB, how inefficient are they?

  • From: "David W Wood" <david.g3yxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 17:32:35 -0000

The rot set in in the late 70's when the DG then appointed came from
industry and made it a political and campaigning organization.


ATB

David W Wood 

-----Original Message-----
From: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
Shaun O'Connor
Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2015 5:13 PM
To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [access-uk] Re: RNIB, how inefficient are they?

i could not agree more. more and more I am coming to the conclusion that
"charities" are nothing more then corporate entities in disguise.

As for Braille being regarded as "old tech" or nearly redundant. although
not a Braille user myself it knocks spots off say. speech synthesis  or
similar especially in an environment where note taking is required.

likewise with pocket recorders. can you imagine talking into a pocket
recorder for later transcription? while your fellow people are trying to
listen to a lecture?


On 22/01/2015 13:33, Mike Ray wrote:


        
        The RNIB now seems to be run by suits with little or no grasp of
what
        the customers really need.
        
        In a world where everything is being dumbed-down to a lowest common
        denominator what we are now seeing is charity bosses who see little
else
        than the bottom line.  How they got to that bottom line is of little
        importance to them.  Just making the expenditure smaller and the
income
        bigger seems to be an end in itself now.
        
        And no doubt one of the things that is pared to the bone to make the
        bottom line look better is training for customer facing staff and
        expenditure on what is seen as old technology.  And sadly Braille is
        perceived by sighted folks, and a lot of blind folks now too, as old
        tech.  Although presumably sighted folks don't regard reading
printed
        words as old tech.
        
        
        
        
        On 22/01/2015 13:16, Clive.Lever@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

                Hi Dave,
                
                Don't get me on my soap box about this one. Cynically, I
sometimes wonder whether the more they can dissuade congenitally blind
people from blocking their resources with loads of braille, the more they
can concentrate on their pet subject: "sight loss". If they tell customers
as a matter of course that braille copies will cost loads, take ages or
generate boatloads of paper, they will get the answer they nudged their
customer to give: "Ok then, I'll have an audio version". Then they will say:
"more and more people are using audio and fewer are reading braille, so
Braille's on its way out". Whooppee! They won't have to devote resources to
it. Is there such a thing as "Lowp! (the opposite of hype), or of demoting
rather than promoting a service? I encountered similar problems when I was
asking for computer manuals as far back as 1982, so sadly, your tale leads
me to think nothing has changed, except that the Institute sometimes appears
to be suffering from sight loss itself..

         .i

                 t's lost sight of the ball! I've usually found that a rough
equation stands me in good stead: Two-and-a-half to three braille pages for
every a4 side of dense print in a pretty standard font size. So, when I read
the original was 96 pages, I thought "300's going to be nearer the mark. I
read on, And surprise, surprise!
                
                Best,
                Clive  
                
                -----Original Message-----
                From: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Dave Sheridan
                Sent: 22 January 2015 12:37
                To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
                Subject: [access-uk] RNIB, how inefficient are they?
                
                
                
                I recently received a Plextalk pocket portable daisy player
as a present. The kind person who gave me this enquired about braille
instructions and was told that they could do this but they would be about
600 pages. The person accepted that audio instructions would suffice. After
receipt of said player I rang to ask for braille instructions and was told
the same thing. I asked for the braille copy. Interestingly the audio
contents goes up to page 96 so I was a little confused why this would
translate to 600 braille pages. I've just received the instructions in 3
volumes totalling just under 300 A4 pages. Clearly those people providing
potential customers with information should be well informed and clearly
they are not: 
                
                To add to this a friend of mine who took out a subscription
to the talking book service has been perplexed by RNIB sending books which
don't appear on the list she supplied them with. This has occurred twice now
within a short period of time, firstly with books she hadn't ordered
appearing on a pen drive sent to her and since then having changed to disc
she has been sent other titles not ordered by her. Having experienced this
myself over some considerable time before I was blunt with them I I do
wonder why their customer service is so poor. As you have to ask for braille
instructions these days you would think they would give good information and
not try to put you off getting them to do the job they are there to do. 
                
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