Dear AccessWorld Editor,
Maybe I’m a Luddite, but I’ve been using technology for over six decades and there’s one thing that really bugs me. It is the lack of a true OFF button.
When I was a kid, and I turned my transistor radio off, it was truly not getting any power. But today, I have no device that I can completely turn off. The soft off button, or the Power Off setting in a device’s menu simply puts the device in to a deep hibernation mode where the battery is still slowly draining. The device needs to always be using some juice so it can monitor one’s pushing a button to turn it back on.
For example, the Braille display in my office is only on when I’m at work. When I’m away from my desk, as I work remotely several days a week, its battery completely drains so I cannot use it untethered until it charges back up again.
The televisions in my home, though they are not using batteries do drain power slowly, increasing my electric bill fractionally even when they are powered off. Having multiple devices all drawing current even when off does increase the bill more, so I’m obliged to unplug multiple devices if I want to remain thrifty.
I have a plethora of old Daisy players I can no longer use, because their batteries are all worn out and they are no longer manufactured. Replacement batteries are hard to locate or no longer available. If like my old transistor radio from the 1960’s, they would run on double A or 9-volt batteries, they would not be obsolete, and by removing those batteries I could also insure they stayed truly off.
Now the only device I have which uses regular batteries are my hearing aids.
Why has our industry moved to making devices consume power constantly and requiring new, specialized batteries every few years? Sure, it’s nice to be able to recharge, but I’d trade that convenience for a real OFF button!
What was wrong with the old system where batteries were readily available at every drugstore and devices stayed off when you did not need to turn them on?
--Deborah Armstrong
