If you are blind and you use assistive software like JAWS or Window Eyes (just to name two first rate products that turn Windows based programs into speech) you may sometimes ask yourself why you need a third party software package that costs over $500just to use the same computer that everyone else can use “right out of the box”.
The problem is that Microsoft didn’t take the accessibility of the Windows operating system into account when they introduced it. In turn blind software developers created software and after a series of legal battles with Microsoft they got cooperation of a kind that opened the doors of MS scripting to programmers who hoped to make windows accessible. The problem is that this work became a third party cottage industry and in turn that industry (making computers accessible) let Microsoft largely off the hook.
And so it costs the blind tons of dough to use the computer and meantime the upgrading of software systems invariably leaves the assistive software industry months behind every time a major operating system is upgraded or tweaked.
Don’t get me started on Macintosh–their accessibility for the blind is mostly a trick pony.
In truth the blind ought to demand full accessibility of electronic products”off the shelf” for indeed that’s what’s needed.
SK
Planet of the Blind 
Thanks for this comment. I will look into the site you metion. While I’m glad that Jaws or Window-Eyesor other products exist I remain trouble by the fact that blind people need to buy these things just to do what others do.
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I couldn’t agree more. Since I can see well enough to get by with them, I use two third-party apps for spot magnification and text-to-speech reading. Lucky for me, these weren’t affected by Vista, but emphasis on the “lucky.” And Mac has always confused progress with reliance on the visual. The iPod people have responded to the need now, but the operating system people are still behind the times.
The only hope is that newer platforms will come along that take accessibility more seriously. I’ve heard a rumor the voice recognition may turn a corner this year, so who knows.
By the way, I found your blog through Rich at The Perfect Focus, who also has some interesting posts about copter accessibility. I’ve put up a few on my own blog, Not Not Blind (notnotblind.blogspot.com). Maybe, if we yell about this loudly enough, something will change. Guess we can say the same for DC.
Happy New Year.
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