Y’all know that there is a DV-dongle that can be used with a computer to do D-star 
and it is fully accessible?  It does use the ambicoder chip, but it is fully accessible with the mac, and Jaws/window-eyes on windows.  You cant ind it at:
http://www.opendstar.org
There you can find more information, or if you just do a search for the term “Dv Dongle” in google, you can get some results as well.  You can buy the product at Ham Radio Outlet, I think it’s about $156, or something like that.  I’ve talked to Ray Navak who is iCom’s product manager for the D-star stuff, and we’ve had words in reference to the half assed efforts that they’ve put in to accessibility of their solutions.  Just an FYI in case anybody wanted to know.On Mar 12, 2014, at 6:43 PM, Buddy Brannan <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Hi Matt,
> 
> I agree completely.
> 
> This is why I don=92t have any D-STAR gear.
> 
> On Mar 12, 2014, at 7:38 PM, Matt Arthur <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
>> Hi Buddy and all,
>> That's great you have done this.
>> I for one will not do D star unless i can do it independetly
>> I refews to have stuff that i can not operate
>> thanks 73 Matt ka0pqw
>> ----- Original Message -----=20
>> From: "Buddy Brannan" <[log in to unmask]>
>> To: <[log in to unmask]>
>> Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2014 5:05 PM
>> Subject: D-STAR On the Cheap?
>> =20
>> =20
>>> Hi y'all,
>>> =20
>>> I didn't want to post about this until I had something perhaps more
>>> concrete, but I changed my mind.
>>> =20
>>> Yesterday, I came across the following post:
>>> =
> http://hamgear.wordpress.com/2014/03/10/sub-200-d-star-radio-in-the-making=
> /
>>> =20
>>> Which is pretty exciting. A commercial radio manufacturer, interested =
> in
>>> breaking the Icom D-STAR monopoly stranglehold for portable radios? =
> While=20
>>> I
>>> have philosophical issues with proprietary black box codecs in use =
> for
>>> Amateur service things that promote experimentation and would prefer
>>> something free and open, OK, I'm a minority. I get that. My biggest =
> beef
>>> with D-STAR is that it's tied to one radio manufacturer, and it looks =
> like
>>> that might actually change.
>>> =20
>>> Well, I wrote to the President of Connect as directed, and it looks =
> like I
>>> have his ear. At any rate, he's willing to explore the issues around
>>> building in some accessibility to his design. Of course, it would =
> perhaps
>>> not be full text to speech, so we likely wouldn't get the full on SMS
>>> messaging and what not, but it sounds like h's amenable to having=20
>>> callsigns,
>>> frequencies, menus, etc. available nonvisually. Just to give an idea, =
> he
>>> said that in order to get the voice samples for all the letters and=20=
> 
>>> numbers
>>> would require an upgrade of the ROM in use by his current models from =
> a=20
>>> 1MB
>>> to an 8MB size, which would cost about $1.00 extra per unit. Y'all =
> know=20
>>> what
>>> this often means for us: it's an extra cost, and I won't be bothered. =
> So I
>>> wrote back and asked him if, indeed, this was a show stopper. I =
> pointed=20
>>> out
>>> that for letters and numbers, we were looking at, at most, about 56 =
> voice
>>> clips, very small ones, and if you didn't mind concatonating some =
> files,=20
>>> you
>>> could get away with far fewer than that. He wrote back and said, =
> "Look, if=20
>>> I
>>> was worried about a $1 part, I'd just add it into the price of the =
> unit",
>>> followed by, "With 8MB of ROM, I could potentially get thus and such =
> many
>>> voice samples without compression, even more with compression, and =
> this
>>> isn't a big deal". Well, more or less that's what he said, at any =
> rate.
>>> =20
>>> I've sent him my eyes-free guides for Wouxun and Puxing    to give an =
> idea
>>> of how we work with even "accidental" accessibility, also suggesting =
> that
>>> strategically placed tones, different pitched or length tones, etc. =
> would=20
>>> be
>>> helpful. So I really hope that as he works on this the he will find =
> me a
>>> useful enough resource to consult with so that we will actually have =
> a
>>> D-STAR radio we can use independently.
>>> =20
>>> --Buddy, KB5ELV=20