WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Cost of Screenreaders

for

From: John Goldthwaite
Date: Feb 19, 2002 3:20PM

I can understand you are taken aback by the price of JAWS and the other
screen readers. You have to consider that the screenreader companies are
continually reverse engineering application software and the new versions of
Windows. They insert their own video driver to capture information so they
have to keep up with video hardware and make sure they don't interfer with
the actual video driver. All of this is supported by a user base of about
20,000 - 30,000 users. All these users can call at anytime and receive
customer service about problems with with the screen reader running with
just about any program you can think of. The blind user is much more
dependent on the screen reader vendor for good customer service than other
software consumers. If a user is having a problem, you can count on the
application software program customer service saying that its the screen
reader causing the problem. The Screen reader company really has to be the
one providing customer support since the application software customer
service staff rarely experience the problems and don't know the solutions.
It is the cost of keeping up with Microsoft and providing customer service
that keep the screen reader costs where they are.

If you are just working on web design, buy a copy of IBM HomePage Reader for
$99.




---
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or view list archives,
visit http://www.webaim.org/discussion/