Ray 

This is a good question; and before purchasing K1000 (it's one of the 
best adaptive equipment purchases I ever made), I wondered much the same 
thing.

First of all, you get what you pay for.  There is no free lunch.

K1000, and the same goes for open Book, is far more than just an ocr 
package.  It is an intelligent ocr package designed with the blind user in 
mind with all sorts of tweeks to make the end result more readable.

But that isn't all:  K1000 is more than a ocr package.  It is an 
integrated package allowing scanned documents to be edited and read in it.
It can be used to read books.  It has download features for books from 
various sources such as BookShare and Web-Braille.
It can take documents and make mp3 files out of them.
It can convert documents between formats.
It has a money identifying function.

Sure, a ocr engine can be had far cheaper.  But with K1000, it has more 
than 1 search engine.  It has the ability to fine tune that scan engine.
And when you get beyond this, by the time, you put together all the other 
features of K1000, you likely will have spent far more.
Aned with K1000, you have seamless integration not a hodge podge which 
inevitably is the result of attempting to peace things together.

And from the standpoint of an agency such as the Lighthouse, providing 
technical support will be easier as your clients would be using a single 
package rather than a variety of things to achieve the end results.

In short, one can have scanning far cheaper -- agreed!  But for a blind 
user who is either technically unsavvy or one who has serious needs, going 
the cheap route is pennywise and dollar foolish.
Those who go the cheap route don't really appreciate what goes into the 
K1000 and Open Book package including, incidentally, 
customer support and product development.


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