Products for the Blind are Too Expensive

Greetings. Its been a busy week, so I haven't gotten to post this as soon as I might have liked to. Nonetheless, here it is.

This article was originally posted to the Blind Tech Yahoo Groups email list. I attempted to find what source it appeared in before that, but was unable to. Anyway, it mentions many of the common points of why the blind has trouble in buying assistive and mainstream technology, but in my view, does it in a better way. I thought it was a good article when I first read it. Please excuse any formatting errors. Enjoy.

Products for the Blind are Too Expensive
by Bob Branco

When we think of something that frustrates the blind population, we
usually talk about how difficult it is for them to find a job. An issue
that doesn't get talked about much is the huge price that the blind have
to pay in order to live like the sighted. High technology has come a long
way, and most of sighted individuals still manage to afford many of the
modern day products that are currently on the market. However, a lot of
adaptive products for the blind are too expensive, and I don't think it's
because of what goes into these products. I'll give you examples of what I
mean.

Let's take the average pocket calculator that sighted people use.
Let's assume that this calculator does triganometric functions,
exponents, scientific notation, etc. You'd think that the mechanism
inside the calculator is worth a lot, because it almost thinks like a human
brain. Yet this item sells for about $10 or less.

On the other hand, let's take a look
at the manual Perkins braille writer. It has no computer chips, no
circuitry, and doesn't perform complex tasks. It's a portable
machine with 7 keys, and you do everything by hand, such as return the
carriage, roll the paper in and out, back-space, etc.

After hearing about the amazing pocket calculator for less than $10, you'd
think that the manual old-fashioned braille writer is worth less? Wrong!!!
It costs about $700.

Let's take this a step further and compare computer items for the
sighted and blind.

A sighted person can buy a hand held multi-task
machine that acts as an address book, a note book, and God knows what
else for a very low price. The blind have a similar item called the
Braille-and-Speak. It does all the same things as the sighted person's
pocket computer, however, it's slightly bigger and includes speech
software. The cost of the Braille-and-Speak is $1,400.

There is a product called the I.D. mate, which scans bar codes and
labels for blind shoppers. It is portable, and quite helpful, but
costs $1,600.

Jaws, which is the actual speech software that many blind people use,
sells for $1,100.

When you take a look at these items and compare them with the small
calculators for the sighted, and if you stop to think about it, is
there really that much of a difference in the sophistication between
products for the blind and for the sighted? I don't think the difference
is so large that a blind person has to spend an additional thousand dollars
more than the sighted to have the same things done for them.

I think the blind are victims of something we learn about in economics,
Supply and Demand. The blind are a limited market, which makes their
products cost more.

However, in the case of the blind, let's forget about basic economics and
realize that 70 percent of the blind are unemployed and probably
trying to make ends meet each month. Yet these same people who are on
fixed incomes are being asked to spend thousands upon thousands of dollars
to adapt themselves to the sighted world. Why is that?

Does the problem lie with the manufacturer? Is it the wholesaler? Can't
they put basic economics aside and realize that you can't sell a one
thousand dollar product to someone who makes $500 a month?

Whoever is responsible needs to understand the
limited income that a majority of the blind population has, because the
system puts them in the position of being without work, forcing them to
receive a government check worth just enough to put food on the table, pay
bills and have a little left over for other essentials.

We need to put the blind back on an even playing field so that they
can afford to adapt their lives better.
Bob Branco