On Mon, 29 Dec 1997, dan dunfee wrote:

> hello,
>
> a few months ago there was discussion on the net about some advocacy
> groups getting on the dept. of ed.'s case about using imb notes, which is
> largely unusable with speech.   the ed. dept. got ibm into the discussion
> who said they would do something about notes.   has anyone heard the
> current status of this case?   the ed. dept. did adopt new guidelines
> about adoption of new software as a result.

Dan,

I was as curious as you were about this as well.  I wrote janina Sajka at
the American Foundation for the Blind and here is what she said:

Date: Fri, 9 Jan 1998 09:09:21 -0500 (EST)
From: [log in to unmask]

Hi, Kelly:

How effective our advocacy with Lotus was will be proved when Notes 5.0
comes out in beta. Two months ago I was told by a vendor who wanted to
sell AFB Notes that the beta would be out in January. I have also heard
that the product won't release until June. So, my best guess is some time
this year.

I have heard, however, that IBM/Lotus did release an interim patch which
uses the system cursor for editing, certainly a step in the right
direction.

We're currently in a process of selecting applications for AFB and would
have liked to look at Notes, but have dropped it because the current
release is such a non-contender.

                                Janina