I wrote the following to Whistler, the company that has taken 
over production of the PSR-500 scanners and is also engaged in 
making new ones.  I sent the email to Sheri Nolan who's email is  
[log in to unmask]    If any of you folks out there would 
like to send other suggestions to them or just give them input on 
the necessity for accessible scaoners, please do so.  Below is 
the email I sent to Sheri at Whistler.
I originally wrote the following to the engineers at GRE-COM 
regarding their
PSR-500 scanner, but the same issues still apply to the Whistler
products.
  08/05/14
To whom it may concern,
i have owned a PSR-500 scanner since July of 2010.  I originally
wrote the following questions and comments to the people at Gre
America before purchasing the scanner and added some questions to
my list after I had owned the scanner for a few months.
Let me preface this by saying that I am a blind person trying to
use a PSR-500 scanner without being able to use the display.  I
have been a long-time ham radio operator and scanner user since
before radio scanners existed.
Regarding the PSR-500 scanner, while I can, for example, listen
to my local public service system and even specify the talkgroup
for the local police, there are many things I am not able to do.
My desire is for you to produce a scanner that will use a speech
output module to Speak what is on the display.  This is not a
pipe dream but a reality with other companies.
I use a Kenwood TMV-71A dual band ham radio which has just such a
feature.  It has a speech module which I purchased separately
that just plugs into the radio and speaks most of the functions
upon demand making it extremely easy to program frequencies,
offsets, and PL's.  Without the speech feature the Kenwood radio
is virtually unusable for a blind person.
Including a speech output option in your scanner would not only
enhance its use for people who are blind, but would also make it
safer for sighted people to use such as in the case of the Apple
I-pod.  Since I originally wrote this, some inexpensive handheld
radios have become available from China for around $50 that
include speech output as an option.
  If speech output is considered not possible for some reason, 
then
I would suggest changing your key beep set up to include the
following.  When you push a key to turn a group on or off I would
ask for a low beep to indicate the group is off, a high beep to
note when the group is on.  I would also ask that an error beep
such as occurs when you try and enter something the scanner
doesn't accept, be included when nothing is enabled.  It can be
very frustrating not knowing which groups are active or if any
group is active at all.
  I wrote the following questions to the engineers at GRE in 2010
but received no response from them.  The same questions still
apply to your Whistler scanner.  It is my sincere hope that
including speech output or at the very least, more feedback using
beeps as I suggested above, would make your products much more
usable by people who are blind or have low vision.  Please
answer if possible my questions below about the PSR-500 scanner
in terms that don't require using the display to achieve the
desired outcome.
How do you save a frequency you hear in close talk mode?
  How do you make the radio stay on a frequency you want to know
about?
  How do you manually program a search between a lower and upper
frequency?


How do you manually enter a conventional frequency?
  Does the attenuation have a global affect or does it affect 
each
trunked or conventional frequency? If it affects each
individually, is there a way of resetting it to off?
  I look forward to hearing back from you and sincerely hope that
you can incorporate features in your new scanners that will make
them much more accessible for the many blind and low vision folks
who find great enjoyment listening to public service radio.
Thank you and best regards,
Jim Gammon