moderated Re: Question regarding jaws SMA
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Leedy Diane Bomar
During the past several years, at consumer convention time, F.S. Has offered a great deal on the SMAs for JAWS. I believe the cost of a new SMA was $75, irregardless if one had the latest version, or not. This was a regular 2-year SMA. I found that it was also available via a phone call to F.S. A new copy of JAWS, for those who did not already have it, was $150. Now, this is reasonable, and should be the normal pricing.
It wouldn't surprise me, at all, considering present and past attitude of this company (no matter what their current name is), for them to stop selling the SMAs all together. I will not mince words: that company has used, and even influenced, Microsoft to NOT include full inclusion in Windows. They have exploited blind people, and municipal agencies, from the beginning! Now, they JAWS sales are diminishing, and they are taking over the accessibility of web and app development! At vendor conventions, such as CSUN, they have wooed and provided misleading information to large companies, such as Amazon, to sell them "solutions". These include training,conducted in such a way to ensure that developers are convinced that they cannot include accessibility considerations in their coding. I do not write this, as opinion, I have facts to back up what I am saying, including from Amazon executives! Their training strategy consists of bringing blindfolded developers into a room, and "teaching" them to use JAWS to navigate web sites. They then demo their expensive software solutions that can be run against inaccessible web sites, and either repair the problems, or point out the problems to the developers. Imagine a screen dependent developer being blindfolded and presented with a keyboard. Their brains would be screaming for visual input, and panic the individuals. This is a natural biological/neurological response. When I asked the Amazon executive why they would not simply turn off the screen, rather than blindfolding the group, his reply was "but then, they would be able to see the keyboard!". I explained that blind people are used to seeing the keyboard by touching it, and most of us are taught touch typing at an early age. We are usually not mouse dependent, which these developers are. But, he was flummoxed by my objections. After all, F.S. Had been the developer of the "most popular" screen reader for decades! They had wined and dined him at Csun, and would take the burden of responsibility off of his shoulders! BTW, he told me thatAmazon "was lucky to find" him, as their posting for an executive to handle accessibility had been advertised for over a year. What made him qualified for such a lucrative, influential position? He once had a blind friend, and he had worked for NASA writing text descriptions of their pictures on their website! Even as H-J, the company always required that one update from the most recent public release. One had to pay the cost of all of the SMAs for the versions that the person had not bought, or they could simply buy a new copy at $1000 a pop. I despise business practices that cause a niche market to be dependent on their product, and then charge exorbitant prices, plus take advantage of the government's rightful requirements for accessibility. It would have cost Microsoft pennies on each copy of Windows, to include full accessibility in their software and operating systems, and I hold them equally, if not more, responsible for this miscarriage of "accessibility". But, what can we do? Cut off our nose to spite our face? F.S. Purposely bought the company that the year before had bought GWMicro, maker of Window Eyes, knowing that they were going to discontinue their highest competitor. The FTC should have been notified and involved with this monopolistic scheme, but the whole matter was handled very stealthily. So, I would suggest buying the SMA for as long as they are available. The more people that fall for the subscription scam, the more excuses the company will have to justify that doing away with the SMA was a customer driven decision. Does anyone know if it is possible to buy several SMAs that will be viable consecutively? I will definitely be checking this summer to see if they offer this deal, again, but, it wouldn't surprise me if they don't. I expect them to offer subscription licenses at a greatly reduced rate, though. Their "sales" in previous years have had the sole purpose for boosting their sales reports distributed to companies they are trying to impress, and make future money from. I hate hidden agendas, and companies that pretend to do something positive for their customers, to hide the real motivation of increasing their exploitation and dubious business practices. Yes, I know the argument "all businesses do this" but companies that wear the pretext of providing goods and services to a disadvantaged/desperate market, should be called out for exploitation! Diane Bomar On Feb 15, 2020, at 11:18, Glenn / Lenny <glennervin@...> wrote:
I think it is wrong because people paid for the
missing versions of Jaws simply by not enjoying all the latest
features.
I don't think it is wrong for FS to not give
support to someone without an up-to-date license though.
But charging for unpurchased versions is
wrong.
Glenn
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