Hello Lori et Al,
I would like to echo David's comment that this report impressed me with
its thoroughness. I have generally been impressed with your and Tom's
work with respect to your relation to the blindness community. You have
done everything in your power to understand the needs and incorporate
them into the projects in which you participate.
I would be willing to provide comments on these players. Depending on
when the second phase takes place, I may even have access to all of
these players to provide adequate feedback.
Pratik
Pratik Patel
Managing Director
CUNY Assistive Technology Services
the City University of New York
(718) 997-3775
[log in to unmask]
-----Original Message-----
From: VICUG-L: Visually Impaired Computer Users' Group List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Lori Bell
Sent: Sunday, February 15, 2004 4:14 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Report on current digital talking book players on the
market
Points well taken. Are there some visually impaired
talking book readers in this group who would like to
trial these players in the next few months and give us
your impressions for the next part of the report? If
so, let me know. Thanks, Lori Bell
--- Mike Pietruk <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Lori
>
> Both you and Kelly make valid points. I should like
> to add 3 of my own:
>
> (1) No two individuals, be they sighted or not, can
> come up with an
> overview that will address the unique questions any
> given reader of the
> report will have. Different people want different
> bits of info and look
> at things differently. Hence, no matter who writes
> the report and
> participates in the evaluation, it won't be
> satisfactory to someone
> happening to read it.
>
> (2) When such reports are written, and the intended
> audience is potential
> blind users, it is important that the presented info
> be that what blind
> users want to know. If that report is prepared by a
> sighted individual
> with little feedback from blind users, such a report
> may fall short in
> providing such info. As an example which might
> bring home that point,
> how valuable would you find a report I would write
> on a car you were
> contemplating to buy if I only included my personal
> reactions.
>
> (3) One thing I like seeing in such product
> overviews is an overview of
> the machine outlining how controls and switches are
> set up, etc. Such
> product descriptions may best be prepared by an
> individual who is not
> sighted as they are more likely to have a feel on
> how to do this. Once
> again, this goes back to the notion that potential
> regular users of a
> product may be in a better position to understand
> the product than a
> non-user who just happens to be in the business of
> writing reports. If
> the report writer happens to be working with users
> in the report's
> preparation, however, these problems could be
> avoided.
>
> I think it comes down to this: potential buyers of
> such equipment are
> more likely to take seriously opinions of daily
> users rather than that of
> a journalist one day writing about technology and
> perhaps the next on
> books. And with the costly nature of these
> products, and often the
> inability to examine the gear firsthand prior to
> purchasing, the sources
> of opinion aren't a trivial matter.
>
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