From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from w088.z208036108.was-dc.dsl.cnc.net ([208.36.108.88] helo=toccata.grg.afb.net) by speech.braille.uwo.ca with esmtp (Exim 3.34 #1 (Debian)) id 16ly52-0008Me-00 for ; Fri, 15 Mar 2002 15:13:36 -0500 Received: from localhost (janina@localhost) by toccata.grg.afb.net (8.11.6/8.11.6) with ESMTP id g2FKDMu03380 for ; Fri, 15 Mar 2002 15:13:22 -0500 X-Authentication-Warning: toccata.grg.afb.net: janina owned process doing -bs Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 15:13:21 -0500 (EST) From: Janina Sajka X-X-Sender: janina@toccata.grg.afb.net To: speakup@braille.uwo.ca Subject: Re: FW: USA: Online book-sharing service for the blind borrows a page from Napster In-Reply-To: Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: speakup-admin@braille.uwo.ca Errors-To: speakup-admin@braille.uwo.ca X-BeenThere: speakup@braille.uwo.ca X-Mailman-Version: 2.0.8 Precedence: bulk Reply-To: speakup@braille.uwo.ca List-Help: List-Post: List-Subscribe: , List-Id: Speakup is a screen review system for Linux. List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: OK. Next problem! Full page braille displays have long been a kind of holy grail that we dream of and can't attain. As things stand, a single line display is horrendously expensive. We need a breakthrough. We need two breakthroughs, actually: 1.) Price. Anything we know today says this would go through the ceiling--tens of thousands of dollars, at least; 2.) Complexity. I don't know that we understand how to build anything this complicated and keep it controlled. Current single line displays are already very complicated, mechanically--which is why they're so expensive. My conclusion: Were we to make breakthroughs on the above two points we'd want a full page braille display before this kind of unit. -- Janina Sajka, Director Technology Research and Development Governmental Relations Group American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) Email: janina@afb.net Phone: (202) 408-8175 Chair, Accessibility SIG Open Electronic Book Forum (OEBF) http://www.openebook.org