Hi All,

I'm definitely an avid braille user. The history of the
displays I use is abit complex, but suffice it to say
I don't really use anything more sophisticated
than the talking calculator unless it has braille. I
do believe speech is superior to braille for some simple
applications--e.g. talking clocks are cheaper and
more reliable than braille watches. I believe
present-day computers are too complex for the
speech medium. I believe this may change in the
future. As computer technology becomes more
pervasive in our environment, the devices will
become more specialized to particular uses--e.g.
web TV is generally less fleixble than a desktop
computer. Web TV may be a bad example because it's
so unusable. However, more user friendly
specialized devices will probably exist, and they
will probably work better with speech.

I agree with the reasons other have given for
the relative popularity of speech. I would add
one additional reason: incompitent sighted
professionals.

Glen