TalkSerotek: Re: The SMA is dead.

  • From: "Rick Harmon" <rharmon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <talk-serotek@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2009 23:32:47 -0500

I agree, as trainers we should get some kind of discount for making their 
products be better known to users out there.
I don't see it happening though *sigh*

Rick
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ann Parsons" <akp@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <talk-serotek@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, January 28, 2009 11:24 PM
Subject: TalkSerotek: The SMA is dead.


Hi all,

I can't help responding to this message, and I will probably be
responding to Richard Wells' post about modular solutions to the
notetaking dilemma.

However, I would just like to tell you that when I heard this
announcement, I got all choked up.  Yeh, this old Netizen who doesn't
usually cry at movies got all choked up!  Why?  Because I had the
singular experience last sommer of acquiring a small grant for my
business.  Being a trainer, I *must* have all three screen readers on
my computers here in the office.  It is impractical to do anything
else.  So, when I acquired the $2,000.00 I began looking at what I
needed to do in order to upgrade my software.  I looked at WE, said,
yeh, think WE needs to be upgraded.  I looked at Jaws and said, yeh,
this needs to be upgraded too.  So, I went to my telephone to talk to
the folks at the given companies to upgrade my screen readers so that I
could train people better.  (I believe that trainers should get
discounts from Access Technology Vendors, food for another editorial),
and I discovered that I could upgrade WE for $450.00., giving me two
additional upgrades.  Then, I went to their competitors.  Friends, I am
currently running Jaws 6.0.  Jaws is up to version 9, or it was last
June.  Friend, neighbors, Mike is completely right when he sites the
price of upgrading Jaws for me.  That company wanted $750.00, yes,
seven hundred and fifty dollars they wanted me to pay.  Yes, they
wanted me, a trainer, one who, if I wanted to, could train their
clientele on their software, recommend their products, be of assistance
to their vendors and so on and on.  They wanted me to pay for the
privilege of going from Jaws 6.0 to 7.0, 7.0 to 8.0, and finally, 8.0
to 9.0.  I said no.  I repeat, I said no.  I am still running Jaws 6.0.
Yes, still.  BTW, I was offered a cracked copy of Jaws 10 by a friend
in India.  I said no, because I'm an honest person and for me as a
trainer to operate with cracked software is wrong, ethically wrong, and
I will, not, do it.    However, for the thousands of blind people who
live in India using cracked software from the U.S. is their *only*
means of accessing computers.  In basements, in Internet Cafes, in airy
classrooms with open windows and verandas outside, in schools for the
blind where they *are* teaching braille and learning braille, access to
computers is almost impossible unless you use Linux or cracked copies
of access software.   If information access is a right, then our Indian
brothers and sisters are obtaining it in the only way they can, by
stealing it!  Yes, it's wrong, it's ethically wrong, but it's morally right!

So, when Serotek announced this evening that the SMA is dead, I got all
choked up.  I couldn't help it!  Congratulations to you, Mike and to
your team!  You go guys!

Ann P.

-- 
Ann K. Parsons
Portal Tutoring
EMAIL:  akp@xxxxxxxxxxxx
web site:  http://www.portaltutoring.info
blog:
http://www.samobile.net/users/akp/blog
Skype: Putertutor

"All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost."

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