Kell wrote :

Is her problem the inability to receive the Des Moines Register through
newsline or the inability or lack of skills to read the Des Moines Register
on the World Wide Web?  She can access it now if she so chooses, but she
wants the federal government to subsidize her accessibility of the Des Moines
Register as she demands.



Kelly,
Your question takes us to the slippery slope of funding blindness
services.  Maybe NLS book production should be discontinued because a
small, but growing number of blind folks can use scanners to "read" the
print titles.  Many cannot use computers and that's why NLS should be
continued.  I know lots of blind people who lack the resources or skill
needed to read a newspaper on-line.  I don't know a single blind person
without a telephone.  Also, becoming familiar with the synthetic speech of
Newsline might be an important step on the road to computer use for those
who have been fearful or resistant to learn a complicated operating system
and screen reader.

Some have said that the 21st century parallel to the free matter mailing
priv. would be subsidized telecommunication services.

Opposing viewpoints welcome.

- Mark


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