What is the Cost of an Equal Playing Field for Blind People?
As blind people, we are all striving for the same thing - to be put on an equal playing field with the sighted population. We would like equal access to information, job opportunities, and to be treated the same way as our sighted counterparts. However, some organizations that are supposedly trying to help make this happen are actually hindering the ability of blind people to obtain information and be able to perform jobs as well as sighted people. One such company is Freedom Scientific, the creator of JAWS, the Braille Lite and so many other technologies that most blind people in today’s world are all too familiar with.
Though often riddled with bugs, this technology provides us with invaluable tools to allow us to use computers, access information on the internet, have a pocket PC and so many other things that the average sighted person does… at triple the cost, or sometimes more. Why so expensive? I will give Freedom Scientific the benefit of the doubt by saying there is definitely a small market for the technology they provide. However, I refuse to pay as much or more to be able to use my computer than the computer actually costs, or $8,000 for a PAC Mate, which is the equivalent to a Palm Pilot costing $200 or less.
How can Freedom Scientific price their goods so outrageously and still bring in business? Simple: Because they have very little competition. The market for these products isn’t really a market at all; FS knows that the vast majority of their products will be purchased by either the government or a non-profit organization, and not directly by the consumer, and thus they can afford for their products to be ridiculously overpriced. The majority of people without access to funding though, are unable to have these essential products. With the unemployment rate in the blind population (a rant for a later time), you’d think that these products would be priced more fairly.
So what is there to do? When a JAWS update costs several hundred dollars and a program a person wants to use immediately requires the latest version of JAWS, they can’t wait to be approved for funding. The average person does not have time (nor should they have to make it) for filling out applications and meting with people so that they can have funding for products that allow them to simply be on an equal playing field with the average sighted person. What is the answer? Government subsidies so that a blind person would have to pay a closer amount to a sighted person wanting to purchase a similar product using regular technology? Who knows? But right now, ways around paying these ridiculous prices, such as cracks for JAWS are becoming more prevalent, and the consumer is beginning to realize how unfair a price he or she is having to pay for their independence.
This article contributed by anonymous.