Thinkzo: Resource Article

The High (and Low) Cost of Blindness Technology

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What kinds of technology are available for the blind or visually impaired today? And what does it cost? If you don't know someone with a vision disability or aren't visually impaired or blind yourself, you're probably in for a rude awakening.

I wanted to compile a list of a variety of technologies along with their approximate or average costs, not only to demonstrate some of what's available but to convey some sense of the often exhorbitant costs the blind or visually impaired are faced with in order to gain some independence.

Now, the first thing people say to me is, "But so-and-so agency will buy that for you, or pay for most of it, etc." No service agency is just going to give without expecting something back in return. That may be a loan to repay the debt, forcing me to go back to school, forcing me to go to a blind school, forcing me into a job that is less than desirable based on my education and work experience prior to my disability, or providing me with used equipment rather than something state of the art. There's a string attached somewhere. This doesn't mean I'm not willing to do something in exchange for the help. What bothers me about this is there don't tend to be any other options other than the ones I listed. It becomes quickly evident that you do as the agency requires to get the help you want or you get little or no help at all. You get trapped in what is essentially an old, tired, tried and true assembly line, rubber stamped like every other blind or visually impaired person who's ever existed. That's not good. People need other choices and options. Another thing that bothers me is that no agency has ever offered to get me most of what I need in order to be as productive as I could be. I don't think it's unfair to say that one is likely to get maybe $1,000 to $3,000 of assistance rather than possibly the $10,000 that is actually needed. An added problem is that one is often left feeling like they must beg to get the stuff, though this may depend entirely on the particular agency or person you're dealing with.

So I complain to the companies producing technology that seems, or obviously is, exorbitantly hight priced. That's when the same old, tired, tried and true rhetoric starts on that end. "We need to recover R&D costs, and the market we're addressing is a small segment." Yes, and if that company has been in business say, 10 years, how much longer is it going to take to recover those R&D costs? How many more of those $3,000 PDAs do you need to sell before you recover what it initially cost you to come up with the technology? Then, there's the rhetoric about the market segment. The problem with that is that there are companies producing technology at a very reasonable or equivalent cost to the core technology. This demonstrates that it's possible to develop, market and sell a product at a reasonable cost to a small market segment.

Example, a talking watch. Potential market, blind, low vision. $30, metal case and band, four independent alarms, stopwatch, calendar and hourly chime, all functions speak.

Now, that watch had R&D costs. Most watches don't talk, and I can tell you from trying to find one with that much "stuff" on it, that most don't have four independent alarms and all the other features mentioned. I don't recall ever seeing a traditional digital watch with four independent alarms. It's not in a cheap plastic case, but a nice metal case. It has a pleasant sounding female voice, not some cheap, dopey robotic voice. It's geared toward a small market segment just like other technologies. That watch should cost at least four to six times it's available cost, but it doesn't. It costs about what anyone would expect to pay for a similar watch. So the stuff these companies are saying doesn't hold water. Sounds more like a clever way of covering up plain, simple greed. Providing cushy jobs and benefits for people who sit around telling everybody else what to do, while others do the real work developing and building the product.

Your perspective on a lot of things tends to change when you suddenly find yourself faced with a sudden setback or circumstance. Perhaps if the people working at the service agencies or companies spouting the same old tired rhetoric suddenly found themselves disabled and lost their job, their life turned upside down, no longer and not likely to ever be quite what it was before, they might change their way of thinking and doing things to others.

Most people realize there are times in life when they're essentially forced to pay a certain cost for something, just because company X is the only company that makes that product. Company X can, in essence, charge whatever it wants because there's not enough competition. While competition does help drive down the cost of goods and services, personal morality can do that too. If a business owner realizes they're the only source of a product or service, there are two ways they can go: (1) charge an exorbitantly high price just because they can get away with it, or (2) charge a fair, reasonable price that provides them a reasonable return and at the same time provides a benefit to their fellow man (or woman). We all know it's easier to do the former than the latter, but just because it's easier doesn't justify it.

I've mentioned a lot here specifically about the blind, or bisually impaired, but you should realize that persons with other types of disabilities face similar challenges when it comes to dealing with the costs of technology to make them more independent and productive.

So what technology is available and what does it cost? Bear in mind, as you look at the following examples, that this is only a sampling of various technologies and is not intended to be a comprehensive list. Also, the prices given can be easily verified with a simple internet search, and are current to the best of my knowledge as of August 2005.

Technology	Approximate/Average Cost
Screen reader, software that allows the blind or visually impaired to independently use a computer.	$700 to $1,000. Typically requires an annual or biannual maintenance agreement or upgrade plan that can add an additional $120 to $200+ for each contract period.
Talking microwave oven, speaks clock, timer and cooking settings.	$300 to $400.
Self-adhesive Tactile feedback dots, can be used to mark settings on a microwave keypad, washer, dryer, computer keyboard, or almost anything.	About $2 for a set of 6.
Talking Caller ID, speaks the number (and sometimes also a name) for an incoming call.	$25 to $100, depending on features.
Talking/Braille PDA, equivalent to the various pocket computers the sighted use.	$2,000 to $5,000.
Talking Tape Measure, measures in one sixteenth of an inch accuracy, includes memory and ability to convert among several Metric and Imperial units.	$90 to $140, depending on how carefully you shop.
Liquid Level Indicator, hooks over the side of most containers, emits a beep when the liquid level reaches a safe, full level.	About $20.
Light Probe, in a pocket sized device, emits an audio tone at a pitch which indicates with a fair degree of accuracy where and how bright a light source is.	About $25.
Talking Digital Watch. At the low end of the scale, these tend to speak the time, alarm, hourly chime, all watch settings, and come with anything from a cheap plastic case and strap to a leather strap and metal case. At the high end of the scale, these tend to do all that watches at the low end of the scale do, plus offer several talking alarms, a stopwatch and calendar, in anything from a cheap plastic case and strap up to an all metal case and band.	No rhyme or reason to the pricing or features. $10 to $100+. An analog style with a leather strap and metal case that tells the time, has an hourly chime and one alarm frequently runs about $50 or better, yet a digital model with an all metal case and band with four independent alarms, stopwatch and calendar functions runs about $30. Go figure. I've seen one with about 16 musical alarms in a cheap plastic case and band that doesn't speak all of it's features sold for $10 to $20, while the all metal $30 model speaks every single feature in a pleasant female voice.
Talking Color Identifier, can provide color information to various degrees of accuracy, assists in everything from picking out clothing to telling the color of lights on many electronics to virtually anything labelled or identified with color.	$120 to $900. Units on the high end of the price range aren't necessarily better than those on the low end of the price range. Contrary to anything the product manufacturers or product reviews say about the higher priced units, the lower priced units do just as good a job, if not better, of recognizing and speaking color information than their higher priced counterparts.
Talking Compass.	$60 to $100+, depending on how carefully you shop. I've only found one to be prominent, the Columbus Talking Compass, which interprets the four major cardinal points and the four combination points.
Talking VCr, this is an actual talking VCr, not a talking universal remote with a programming capability. All of the setup features speak and the unit can be programmed without sighted assistance, although some of the screens aren't as blind friendly as they could be.	About $100. The only models I have ever encountered were made by Zenith using the SpeakEasy technology, although I seem to recall hearing of some other brands running in the several hundred dollar range. The Zenith models are somewhat hard to find, because Zenith discontinued the product line for some idiotic reason, but you can still find them if you look long enough and have a bit of luck.
Talking Digital Thermostat, can be installed by anyone familiar with installing a standard thermostat, everything on this unit speaks, from programming, to setting the date/time, to monitoring the battery life or maintenance of your heating/cooling system.	$100 to $150, depending on how carefully you shop. Makes one wonder why the talking microwave costs $300 to $400 considering the user interface of this thermostat is at least as complex as that found on most microwaves. Oh, did I forget to mention, this thermostat can do what most thermostats can't - you can program it for different cycles, such as you want it to do one thing during the week and another on weekends.

Again, this is only a small sampling of what's out there. There are also talking products that aren't built specifically for the blind or visually impaired that are often perfect solutions for the blind or visually impaired. Unfortunately, the majority of talking products, including many built and marketed specifically for the blind or visually impaired, have lousy user interfaces - LCd displays the blind, or some visually impaired persons, can't possibly read, and no speech to provide that feedback. Fortunately, there are a lot of good products out there, but sadly they're in the minority.

In closing, I'd like to suggest to anyone reading this to consider a social project to help raise money for persons with disabilities in your area. It doesn't need to be difficult. A church can raise money to help those with disabilities to get this technology. That's what my home church did for me. There's no way I can ever repay that debt other than by using that technology to help others. It's through this ripple effect of one person helping another that these debts can be repaid, not by expecting the blind or others with disabilities to fend completely for themselves. That's an extremely incompassionate way of looking at the situation. None of us ever knows when we might need help, and that disabled person you help now may be able to help you in ways you can't imagine later.

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