Dear AccessWorld Editor,
Thanks again to you and your team for featuring Transformer USB/VGA in the July edition of AccessWorld. We look forward to the opportunity to work with you in the future when we release new products to the marketplace.
Enhanced Vision is always striving to make the best product possible. We are currently looking at upgrading many of our devices, including the Transformer, and your input is greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
James Bailey, Director, Eastern US Sales
Enhanced Vision
Dear AccessWorld Editor,
When I first got my iPhone, I had a very difficult time learning to navigate using the touchscreen, and I sent it back. Finally, my desire to be on Facebook along with my family and friends made me give it a second chance. AccessWorld's series by Larry Lewis, "Taking the Stress Out of iOS," has been awesome.
Thank you,
Lina
Dear AccessWorld Editor,
What struck me about Dr. Jaclyn Packer and Morgan Blubaugh's article, "All for One and One for All: The Use of 'All-in-One' Multifunctional Document Centers by People Who are Blind or Have Low Vision," was the high level of unemployment for people who are low vision or blind. This 70 percent level has been the same for 20 years or more!
Did this nation ever reduce the number of unemployed?
I am concerned. The nation is experiencing an ongoing constriction of economic factors that will make employment more and more difficult over the next four to six years. Employment candidates who are blind and visually impaired will need to compete against fully sighted candidates. A high school diploma is not considered a tool for employment. A four-year degree is an essential tool, but a master's degree is a basis to land a job. Over the past eight years, millions of jobs have gone and will not return. Employment for many candidates will need to sprout from, well, almost thin air.
A newspaper story regarding Spain appeared about three months ago. Spain and the Spanish people demonstrate a type of economic constriction that our nation should prepare for. Will this type of economy remove the blind and visually impaired from any consideration for employment?
AccessWorld's all-in-one copier article is a well-intentioned advisory notice, but I think there is something happening in our nation that will shrink us and change the rules for all Americans.
Sincerely,
Clifford
Dear AccessWorld Editor,
I would like to congratulate AFB for developing AccessNote. I look forward to giving it a spin. Whether one is contemplating using this app with either the Apple Wireless Keyboard or a wireless braille device, what is important to admit is that the utility of the iOS device is once again changing yet proceeding ahead in a way we probably haven't thought about.
I need a smartphone to get by nowadays, and with a tool such as AccessNote, I will have yet another way to interface with the world through my iOS device. Today iOS, tomorrow Droid?
We all win!
Sincerely,
R.P.
Dear AccessWorld Editor,
I am blind, and I am writing in response to Deborah Kendrick's June 2012 article, "When Tech Support Isn't Supportive."
I have had numerous, less than satisfying experiences with mainstream tech support. On more than one occasion, tech support representatives have asked me to call back when a sighted person was available to help me! One such experience occurred when my husband, who is also blind and has a Spanish accent, tried to communicate with a tech from India who kept saying in disbelief, "You are blind, and you have a computer?" Then, he told my husband that he couldn't understand his English at which point my husband asked to speak to a supervisor, and the tech hung up.
My husband and I have had good assistance from the Minor League Baseball (MiLB) association as they apparently have a few blind tech support employees, and that makes a big difference.
I have also had problems with tech support in my employment as a medical transcriptionist. One tech support representative even told me that I should just use the computer the way we typed in the old days before computers! I asked him how I would spell check and make corrections, and of course, he had no answers.
I retired after 40 years because of the frequent program changes made by my employers. These programs were frequently proprietary and often were not designed with keyboard commands or graphics labels. I would have preferred to work a few more years, but the situation became impossible to cope with, especially when voice recognition came along. It all became too much with so many errors that needed to be corrected, listening to difficult accents, listening to JAWS, detecting and correcting errors, trying to make production, and being paid only half the salary received for straight typing. I believe that the medical transcription field is becoming just about impossible for those of us who are visually impaired, even with the use of a braille display. This is unfortunate as it was a good career for many of us. The issue of changing software programs may cause many others to lose their jobs, which is the last thing we need with our high levels of unemployment.
Access technology does its best, but it is being overwhelmed by so many versions of programs and software.
The issue of poor tech support has touched a nerve for so many of us, and I am happy to see it discussed in AccessWorld.
Sincerely,
Carol
