RE: EITAAC - Families Subcommittee

[David Bolnick <davebo@MICROSOFT.com>]

This is important for the entire EITAAC to understand and supports
proof-of-concept verbiage in government contracts (I believe the SSA
contract included one). Whether this can be a 508 requirement is beyond me.
Maybe the DOJ representative (Mary Lou Mobley) can comment here. 

Back to printers and scanners. The fact of the matter is, many parallel
scanners will not work with new parallel printers on the same lpt port (as I
am guessing what may be happening here). Generally speaking USB and SCSI
scanners should work with most parallel printers. The combo approach you
mention is fine but do know that these generally have a shorted life-span. 

David A. Bolnick
Accessibility Program Manager: Multimedia, Telecommunications
Microsoft Corporation, One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA  98052
Tel: 425-936-8342    Page: 888-899-0841    Fax: 425-936-7329
E-mail:  <mailto:davebo@microsoft.com> davebo@microsoft.com     Web:
<http://microsoft.com/enable> http://microsoft.com/enable


		-----Original Message-----
		From:	Bill Paul [mailto:BillPaul@compuserve.com]
		Sent:	Monday, October 19, 1998 8:15 AM
		To:	Multiple recipients of list
		Subject:	EITAAC - Families Subcommittee


		The list David Bolnick provides, is very comprehensive but I
would like to
		emphasize that what is often missing is the systems
integration.  For
		example, Don Dillin, a recognized expert in the field of
assisstive
		technology for the visually impaired, was hired by me to
install in my
		second home, a computer, scanner, printer with Zoom Text and
Compuserve. 
		He purchased an IBM computer an HP scanner and an HP
printer.  He brought
		the boxes with the hardware to my home and spent about 10
hours trying to
		get the disparate black boxes and software to work.  He
could not get the
		HP scanner to work with the computer, and we had troubles
with the
		compatibility of Compuserve and Zoom Text.

		He went back to Washington with the boxes and he worked
another group of
		hours and had to change computers to get the system to work.
He sent the
		sysstem w/o the printer to my home.  I put the sysstem
together and the
		scanner still did not work.  It turns out that my printer
and the scananner
		did not play together.  Don kindly offered to fly down to
FLA to fix it. 
		Instead, I sought out a local guru who in turn could not get
the system and
		the scanner to work.  I called HP and voiced my
frusstrations that it
		shouldn't require an expert to make the basic system work.
I asked him if
		I had bought all HP equipment, would the system be
compatible.  He said no,
		different product developers don't talk to one another and
it will never
		happen.

		I will now try to buy a combined printer, copier and scanner
and hope that
		it works with Zoom Text.  

		Lesson learned buy a system unless you are a computer buff.
I and many of
		my disabled  friends are users and know littele about video
cards and the
		like.  This is a very tough issue but in the end, software
must not only be
		able to be accessible to assistive software purchased by the
government,
		but also the wquipment must be able to be put into a system
wihich works
		without requiring a software and computer expert in
residence.

		Bill Paul