Category: the Rant Board
Hey all!
I do realize that maybe this should go on the ranting board..but I felt it delt more with daily living so...
I don't think it's fair that things for blind people are more pricy than they would be for the sited. I hate that! I mean, a deck of braille cards can cost like 7 dollars ad in shipping and you're spending 10 dollars on something that sited people only need to spend 2 or 3 dollars on. Same thing with kitchen timeris.ugh! It's just not fair!
I know why they do this, cause face it..there's more sited people than blind ones..so the demand for visual products isn't as high..plus I know they have to adapt them.
But still..very very annoying, unfair and just brakes the bank!
I know what you mean and agree that blindness products are often a rip off. But you're not limited to using stuff made for the blind. Buy a regular set of cards and Braille them yourself. It could be done in no time with a little sighted help. As for timers, I don't even buy them anymore. I just use the timer on my cell phone or iPod, both things that I already own and can use for multiple functions. I'm just saying, a lot of times there's a way around being stuck with blindness products.
All I can say is I empathize. I don't require blindness products but a young woman I know has a problem called celiac disease. I believe this is allergy to gluten, a particular grain, that if the allergic individual consumes can wreak havoc on their digestive system. And it's hard NOT to consume gluten as it exists in most starchy/sweet foods. If I spend, let's say, $2.50 on a box of cookies, Patty is going to spend $4.50 at least on a gluten free box of cookies the same size. I guess pricing has to do with less demand and perhaps more expensive substitutes or difficulty designing the product, but good luck either adapting to the sighted products or adding Braille.
Ive to agree with Time Traveling Bunny in this regard. we have to take some practice in making use of available products in the open market by adding some special identifications or landmarks as our own.
while they produce something special for the blind, as we are minority in the society, the seller won't get much profit as how they can earn with the regular products.
I hate to be fully depend upon the special products alone. since most of them are much costlier or not available everywhere in the world. also I personally try my best to accomodate myself with the available products in the open markets.
for an example, let's take the screen reader jaws for windows.
which is 50,000 rupees in Indian currency. which is not affordable by most the indian blind people. since we don't have any SSI support here as many countries are doing.
so we mostly go with NVDA or similar free products or ...
so let's try our best to get accomodated with the general products. unless if that is not at all accessible in any kinds.
Raaj.
I think this belongs more on the rant board, so I'm moving it there. Smile.
I echo what many have said here: Resourcefulness is your only friend here.
While yes there are products that can adapt things for us, being resourceful is free. What you may want to do is post examples of where you're running into trouble.
I have crowdsourced that on here before several times, and while I have had crude ways of making things work before, some of the suggestions on here have really helped. The biggest trouble is none of this comes up in your everyday life as a part of general conversation, as we are a scattered population.
Then there are devices for the blind, like a light probe, which render other tasks far simpler.
It can be frustrating, as you said, because you have to know where to get it most times. One time, I even had a blind agency turn me and my cold hard cash down: My cane broke, so I called around - I wasn't that familiar with the area I was in - and the nearest state agency would not sell me one unless I got an evaluation of some sort. I emphasized I was paying, I wasn't asking for taxpayer dollars. But they wanted an evaluation to know if I could use a cane.
Situations like that are assinine, to say the least. Fortunately their competitor sold me one straight off, but I had to get someone to take me 20 minutes further.
And there's the aculturation piece: some places expect you know exactly what it is you want and won't answer questions the way a normal merchant would, and then there's the silly fools like I mentioned earlier.
But I will say: it's getting easier and not harder for us. My iPod does a ton, new apps not even designed for the blind are amazingly useful. But I will always have to go to the elitist market to buy a cane, because we are the only ones who use a cane the way a blind person does.
It may be easier for some of us, who grew up with nearly nothingwhen it comes to adaptations, only that we had to be more resourceful. I would not wish that situation on anyone now, though: you have t take so many more inefficient steps to do the same task, and in the end are perceived slow / bumbling and not able to participate in as much.
That is why you try to find an organization that will give you the product. People understand that the cost is high, and for most difficult to afford, due to the small buyers. The other ideas here are great as well.
That's just life, it isn't fair. its called supply and demand, deal with it or take an economics course.
I fine in most cases there is an alternative method:
Need a phone and can't afford a screen reader? Get an iPhone. If you prefer windows phones, well, that's your preference, but you can't say the alternative doesn't exist.
Need to use a PC without paying for a screen reader? That used to be a problem, but NVDA has changed all that. if you insist on using JAWS, Window Eyes or System Access, just to name the most common ones, well, that's your preference, but you can't say the alternative doesn't exist.
Need to take notes in a portable manner? Most phones have a note taking option or a voice recording option. Want an Accessible note taker like a BrailleNote or a pacmate? Well, that's your preference, but you can't say the alternative doesn't exist.
I think you get my point. there was definitely a time when few alternatives existed, but so many new and wonderful things have come into the market these days that are a lot cheaper than specific accessible products. Hey, we can even play video games. It just takes a bit of time to memorize menus and such, but it's certainly doable if you like that sort of thing, which I do.
Wel put Ocean Dream. It's all a matter of preference in most cases. I don't need, for example, a talking microwave, I just put a few well placed marks on it for easy access. You can adapt many timers that you would find on the mainstream market to suit your needs as well by putting notches in the plastic if it's a dial model, putting little peaces of velcrow on buttons that are not tactile, etc. As Leo said, if there are specific things you're looking to adapt, head on over to daily living and post them. I'm sure the creative minds on here can help.
But what if the person who is specifically looking for a product that is blindness related runs into problems with the organization funding the product and can't afford the product? Just think of that, especially in developing countries although in the US because of the economic downturn, it has been harder to find an organization that funds products. Been their done that! Anyway I will tell you about couple of experiences. Both of them dealt with different products that would be a must have to ease the pain of de cluttering. for example, I really wanted a braille labeler being that it is a lot easier for me to label things in braille so i know what they are and so that i can be more organized. I needed a small portable laboler because of the fact that I had classes and i would get so many papers that it is not even funny to say the least. I would often get very confused and there was no way to tell them apart if i didn't label except asking someone to go through them with me so i can put them in separate folders. Eventually i was getting frustrated because i had no way to organize the clutter in my dorm. I asked my counselor about the use of the labelor and she said "oh, Why do you need a braille labeler? You don't need one because you are close to graduating. + We have to evaluate your situation because of lack of funds. we can't just purchase equipment for you just because you say you need it. I explained the situation clearly and said that using braille will make me more independent and will help me keep better track and lessen the reliability on sighted assistance for everything and that honestly, I sometimes get frustrated because sometimes no one is available to help me because of time constraints. Are there alternatives in my case, well not really because i needed something that can make braille and adhesive tape so i can stick on things. + i can't fit my perkins brailler in my already cluttered room since i shared it with another person which adds more clutter. I do have one slate and stylus but it doesn't have the thing where you can insert dymo tape so yu can label. So my only option, get a braille labeler.
Same thing when i asked my counselor that i definitely needed a victor reader stream. she said the same response as the one mentioned above. Why do i need the victor reader stream? well because i wanted to record my lectures as backup in case i fail to comprehend what i took for notes. +i find that listening to lectures and reviewing my notes helps me studdy better anyway. I don't just sit there and not take notes and let my recorder record. I take notes and record the lectures simultaneously so that i can be more efficient. I needed the victor reader stream because I used books from recordings for the blind for most of my classes. + i also can use it as a recorder too since my ipod's battery was starting to ware out from over use since i used that as an alternative for recording lectures. At least when i record the whole lecture i have the peace of mind because i want to make sure i didn't skip any important information when it was time to study. Also it's portable enough to carry in my purse which i always do because i like to read books from NLS.
I also like the multiple uses and it would serve me from time to time and is a huge help for grad school if i do go in the future which i will very soon. preferably this fall.
there are other, cheaper devices available for recording. As for the braille labeler, I agree that they are very useful, and a little more expensive than they should be, but that's one of those things that's almost unavoidable, because since the demand for those products isn't as great, the price will be higher. the companies that make such things would eventually go bancrupt if they didn't charge more money for their products. there are certain instances where I think certain companies charge a little too much, but that's just my opinion, and I don't know exactly how much it costs to develop the product either.
However, for most things, an alternative does exist. If there's no way of getting a braille labeler, you can always use small sticky dots, available in most stores. You can also use tiny pieces of tape. I use the sticky dots to label the microwave and oven, and it works for me.
First of all, alturnatives are awesome!
As for the braille cards, that's a good idea.. :)
I think that's why I don't buy things like the bill identifyers and color detectores..I just wear jeans or black pants..stuff I like wearing anyways so I can get whatever colored top I want.
OH, and thanks for moving this topic over to the rant board. :)
Shoe, any sort of label tape works with a slate, you don't need any special device or type of slate to accomplish this.
I have never understood the need for the labeling devices, when a slate will do the same thing, and doesn't limit you as to which symbols you can use. *shrug*
To buy a braille labeler, only cost about $30. I'm sure you could save $30? Its not expensive. A couple trips less to say eat out and you got it. This is not hard. Also some tape and paper will make you some labels if you need then, and your slate, but I'd just save the $30. To record, how about an old fashion cassette recorder? I do agree that products are expensive, and their are some you just can't do without, but for the less expensive items some planning will get them for you.
I agree with all that's been said here. There are lots of neat and inexpensive modifications you can make. Best of luck!
I don't get the labeler thing. Get a single line slate. It works great with dymo tape and they cost about 3 or 4 bucks. I do it all the time. In fact, I just bought a new place and spent a large portion of my weekend with a roll of dymo tape, a single line slate and a stylus for labeling my appliances and other things in the kitchen as well as some documents that I sorted out and filed away. Those labelers are ridiculous. They take a lot more time than using a slate. I don't even understand why those things exist. (ok, I know, it's for people who can't / won't learn to write Braille, but still... kind of a silly product if you ask me.)
As for the VR Stream, when you look at blindness specific stuff, that's one of the more reasonably priced products, especially when you consider it's multiple functions. I think it's a bit unreasonable to consider the pricing on it or any of the book players to be unfair. We're not talking FS mega rip off here. But again, a Stream is not essential for what you want to do. NLS provides free players for their books. It's not as convenient or as small as a stream, but it's a hell of a lot smaller and more portable than the cassette player I lugged around during college and it's free. You can't get more cost effective than that. I can't remember if the NLS player works with RFB&D files, but if not, I know RFB&D has an iPhone app that's only $20 or so. There are plenty of digital voice recorders that will work for recording lectures. You don't need some fancy talking one. I have an Olympus recorder that cost me 50 bucks and works just fine. I just learned all the buttonpresses and what all the different beeps meant an I was good to go in no time. I've had that recorder for over 5 years, dropped it repeatedly and generally abused it and it works perfectly.
If you simply must have a Stream, save the money and buy one. I see used ones for around $200 or less all the time on BlindBargains classified ads. I don't care how limited someone's budget is. It's not that hard to save a few hundred bucks. Just take an honest look at your spending. I guarantee you're spending money on unnecessary crap. just cut some of it out for a while and stash the money away. It might take several months, but you'll get what you want and feel better for having earned it.
The time for complaining about assistive tech pricing is over. There are too many cheaper and often better alternatives out there. It's up to us to open our minds and stop shackeling ourselves to the idea that we need a specialty blindness product to survive. We aren't limited to that crap anymore. Creativity, flexibility and an open mind will do more for the blind than any specialized gizmo.
I can definitely understand the frustration felt by many on this list when it comes to pricing and/or finding accessible tech. I also know what it's like to want accessible tech which no longer exists and having to go hunting all over the place for it. There are many pieces of adaptive tech which are still very useful, but because something new comes along, the old is thrown out into the trash? Why, when some kind of organisation can be created to give it to the needy and those who can't get things from anyone else? For instance, if someone can't get a BrailleNote or other modern notetaker, why can't they get a Braille Lite 2000 instead? It can still print and be used for taking notes in class, and if the disk drive is used, files can be transferred back and forth between a computer and the Braille Lite.. And that's just one example.
To The SHU interpreter: I was thinking the same thing about the labeling tape, to use a slate with slots. That or get a full sheet and cut it down to size. You don't even need to get the blind tape either, as there are sheets made for mainstream offices that work just as well. That's what I use to label my food. I also agree with the idea of using a good tape recorder. They make very small ones now, with good microphones or you can get a nice external mic. I think even the digital ones are going down in price now and can be found for well under $100, maybe even under $50.
All that said, if you're going to grad school so soon, I don't see why they can't at least give you a few things to help in your future. It's not as if you'd be using them for a few months and then staying home.
@post17: Woo hoo! Resourcefulness and one's wits are truly the only means of survival for the blind IMHO. It's your wits and yours alone will save you in a break, help you figure your way out of situations and into doing things.
I usually will adapt anything I can myself. My microwave has buttons on it that you can feel so I don't have to do anything to adapt it its actually pretty cool. I put dots on my oven and on my tread mill. I used to braille my own cards until my braille writer died, and now I wait til my cards are really worn out to buy new ones because I do think its rediculious that I pay almost 9 dollars for 1 deck of cards.
Well, life simple isn't fair, no matter if you're blind or not. Being blind, at least you don't have to deal with the expense of buying a car, maintaining it or insuring it. I don't hear people who drive saying that blind people have it so good because they have agencies who will buy things for them.
As for the person who mentioned the $9 for a deck of cards, how long do they last? I'd imagine they'd last for a few years, so if you divide the cost of the cards into the number of years they'll last it's probably a very small amount you're paying for years of entertainment. I realize that some of us have money issues, no jobs, etc., but you can't condemn producers of adapted products for the blind of wanting to get at least a little return for the time spent in adapting as well as in research and development for more complex items.
moreover, it does cost more to develop products for the blind which with supply in demand are the major contributers to why blind products are more expensive.
My opinion is that blind people tend to complain a lot. Everything must be funded by someone else, they must get everything spoon fed with no if ands or buts, and heaven forbid they get turned down. Maybe now with the economic downturn, people won't be so quick to rely on getting free stuff all the time and may actually work hard to earn the money to go out and buy them. Its a different situation if your severely disabled where you are just unable to obtain money, but I find this is not the case and the ones who are complaining are more than capable of saving up for what ever they want.