Miriam,
Right. And guys like me, who only want to take a few minutes playing
around with google and some email, feel like leaves been caught in a
sweeping current, being taken to God knows where. But wherever it is,
we don't want to go there.
I do understand that technological developments for the blind are
driven by the same forces that drive our entire civilization. Profit!
And with Profit comes Greed. It doesn't have to follow, but given
our conditioning, and our human nature, we seem always to succumb to
the guile of Greed. If I had the money, and the knowledge to go with
it, I'd produce some simple tools for blind people who do not want to
become techys. Durable devices like my simple to operate Braille 'N'
Speak. Maybe a simple computer that only does email and basic
internet searches. This desk top computer I'm sitting at right now
does stuff I'll never understand, much less want to use. The people
Cathy and I work with are older, mostly new to blindness. All they
want to do is to stay in touch with their family members. But the
tools developed for doing so, are built for the younger, more adept
blind.
But our Corporate Capitalist System blocks such development. Even if
it were to take off, and such basic tools were developed and
manufactured and sold at reasonable prices, it would only be a short
time until Greed would enter and explain that in order to maximize
profits, it would be necessary to merge with corporate giants in the
field, to streamline production, to add bells and whistles to attract
a wider market share, to lay off half the workers in order to "trim
the fat". In other words, to bow before the Idol of the Golden Calf.
Just because we've come to accept that this is the way things work,
does not mean that it has to be so. Some folks have learned that
there are more satisfying activities in life than racing about, trying
to grab off the brass ring. For me, there is far greater joy in
working to bring people together, finding ways to meet their needs,
than there is in dividing people and climbing over their prone bodies
on the way to personal Glory. Certainly caring for our personal
needs, and those of our families, is a natural action. What is
unnatural is when that need to care for our personal needs become such
an obsession that we forget that we are one Earthly Village, that we
All live in this "Garden of Eden", and we must work together or go
down as a footnote in a history we will never write.
But it's hard to change. The Greed driven propaganda is constant.
Everywhere we turn we and our children are smothered by bobbles and
bangles and glittering toys. We are conditioned to think of "success"
as a bigger house, a fancier car, a summer home and a winter home and
then add to it a vacation estate and a yacht and maybe our private
jet. We are conditioned, no, we are beaten into submission, believing
that this is where we will find purpose and happiness.
Which brings me a long way away from my need for a simple Braille 'N' Speak.
Carl Jarvis
On 5/16/17, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
The blind are as driven by Capitalism as everyone else. But the fact that
Freedom Scientific has become something else entirely, that it swallowed up
Zoomtext which was the alternative large print for computers to Magic, that
people who know, now can't tell me which of these products are getting its
resources, that Jaws is so complicated because it is developed for people
who need it for complicated tasks at work as well as those of us who just
need it for everyday purposes, that blind people who use computers have to
be technologists, not just computer users like most sighted people are, it's
just all beyond me. But it has to do with profit. Humanware developed the VR
Stream which was a great little product, and the second gen stream, which
doesn't work as well as the first gen stream because they tried to design it
to do too much while keeping the price down. But it is also true that the
blind consumers who use both products, kept demanding the Humanware do more
and more and more. Blind people are a vorascious lot. They are having
difficulties with their podcasts because they have 90 feeds on the streams
and the stream can't handle so many downloads. They keep buying larger and
larger storage drives because they keep every book they download and some
have thousands. On the VR Stream list, they are always asking for new
capabilities for their streams and where they can buy larger, cheaper
storage devices for their books.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Monday, May 15, 2017 9:36 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: FW: [announce] Window-Eyes to JAWS Migration
I'm still using, on a daily basis, the Braille 'N' Speak that was presented
to me upon my retirement from the Agency in December of 1993. Of course
Blazie Engineering was gobbled up by Freedom Scientific, and the Braille 'N'
Speak is no longer produced, nor is it serviced. The tech I spoke with,
wondering if they could save my files when I need the batteries changed,
seemed to be out in left field. He wasn't certain they could copy them, and
did not know if the changing of batteries would destroy them. Now here is a
perfectly good product that serves the needs of many blind people who just
need a small recording device, and the ability to store and quickly retrieve
information. But we are so driven by the need to develop new, and often far
more expensive and unreliable equipment in order to survive. In 2005 I
attended the ACB national convention and purchased a piece of equipment made
by Human Ware, called the Voice Mate. Just after one year, after the warren
tee no longer covered replacement of parts, it died. It's a long story that
still angers me to think about, especially the Cavalier attitude of the
people I spoke with at Human Ware. After learning that it would need a new
board, at the cost of $1,500, instead of what I thought would be the
replacement of batteries, I was told, "You should have purchased
insurance."
Insurance at the time was costing $500 a year. I did express myself rather
crudely, since they had left the Voice Mate sit on a work bench for a couple
of weeks, when I had explained that I depended on the files in order to do
my job.
I have always been careful ever since that encounter, to speak poorly of
Human Ware. But here sits my Blazie product, my reliable old Braille 'N'
Speak, plodding along doing its job without a single complaint. But Freedom
Scientific is done with it, and with me. Why is a working machine tossed
aside just because it has been challenged by a new, shiny trinket? Our old
Ford Sport Trak is still running after 13 years and 311 thousand miles. And
Ford still produces parts.
And mechanics still know how to service a 2003 model. But not Freedom
Scientific or Human Ware. It's a "throw away" mentality. One fuzzy cheeked
youth, selling computers in my local, neighborhood Chain Store, asked me,
"Why would you want to keep an old piece of junk?"
...I think I got off on a rant and lost the thread. But my dinner is just
about to appear on the dining room table. It would be a shame if I were not
there to welcome it.
Carl Jarvis
On 5/15/17, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I guess this is the fallout from Freedom Scientific becoming VPO, or
whatever, and then merging with, or being taken over by, some European
corporation that does computer accessibility. We are ending up with
one huge monopoly. Just watch the free screen software programs and
any others that aren’t free, disappear. And my Jaws 18 disappeared at
least 3 times last night after I returned home, each time, just
because I was moving from one window to another. This is the problem that
FS said they know about.
Miriam
From: Kelly Gasque via announce [mailto:announce@xxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Monday, May 15, 2017 1:12 PM
To: leadership@xxxxxxxxxxxx; announce@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: Kelly Gasque <kgasque@xxxxxxx>
Subject: [announce] Window-Eyes to JAWS Migration
Window-Eyes to JAWS Migration
Link: https://www.aisquared.com/news/window-eyes-jaws-migration/
<https://mandrillapp.com/track/click/30489975/www.aisquared.com?p=eyJz
Ijoibi1LSU0yX1l0cDI4ZjVMQ2ltS3FfTVpzWWxRIiwidiI6MSwicCI6IntcInVcIjozMD
Q4OTk3NSxcInZcIjoxLFwidXJsXCI6XCJodHRwczpcXFwvXFxcL3d3dy5haXNxdWFyZWQu
Y29tXFxcL25ld3NcXFwvd2luZG93LWV5ZXMtamF3cy1taWdyYXRpb25cXFwvXCIsXCJpZF
wiOlwiMjBiZDFkNTM1NjNhNDg2OWExMGNmMDk2YTc5YjU4ODJcIixcInVybF9pZHNcIjpb
XCJkNTIzOTU2ZTI3NjJiZDI3OThhNTJlNDJjNDA2MzMxMTViMWIyZDg0XCJdfSJ9>
May 15, 2017
We regret to announce that we are ending the sales of Window-Eyes,
effective immediately in the United States and Canada. Users outside
of the United States and Canada should contact their local distributor for
options.
We understand how important a screen reader is to you and are offering
JAWS® for Windows 18 as a replacement. We are committed to providing a
smooth transition and will honor existing Window-Eyes product
purchases and software maintenance agreements. For complete details
visit http://www.gwmicro.com/window-eyes/migrate
<https://mandrillapp.com/track/click/30489975/www.gwmicro.com?p=eyJzIj
oiRUNITlRRTU1QS25ycmZqVkFyNXc4WWRRQzFZIiwidiI6MSwicCI6IntcInVcIjozMDQ4
OTk3NSxcInZcIjoxLFwidXJsXCI6XCJodHRwOlxcXC9cXFwvd3d3Lmd3bWljcm8uY29tXF
xcL3dpbmRvdy1leWVzXFxcL21pZ3JhdGVcIixcImlkXCI6XCIyMGJkMWQ1MzU2M2E0ODY5
YTEwY2YwOTZhNzliNTg4MlwiLFwidXJsX2lkc1wiOltcImVmOGJmNzM2YTRkZWZhNTZiOD
M1NTgyZjIyNDMxM2FmMmQzZGZlOTdcIl19In0>
Note, the free Window-Eyes Offer for Users of Microsoft Office version
is not part of the conversion program.
<https://mandrillapp.com/track/open.php?u=30489975&id=20bd1d53563a4869
a10cf096a79b5882>
