SV: [governance] IS THE DIGITAL DIVIDE A PHANTOM?

[Carlton A Samuels]

Thanks for - yet again- outlining the reality for some stakeholders!

 

Carlton Samuels

 

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From: kwasi boakye-akyeampong [mailto:kboakye1 at yahoo.co.uk] 
Sent: Saturday, July 28, 2007 7:16 AM
To: governance at lists.cpsr.org; Norbert Bollow
Subject: Re: SV: [governance] IS THE DIGITAL DIVIDE A PHANTOM?

 

Norbert, you wrote:
"This of course needs to be funded somehow, but as
soon as this has been achieved, all visually disabled people
everywhere will be able to benefit from this ...".

I disagree with the underlined bit because in the developing
(under-developed) regions, even the non-visually impaired are struggling to
have access to computers. Internet access is even worse. So for the visually
impaired it is worse for them in developing countries.

Believe me, the digital divide issue is worse than we make it sound. Most of
the solutions we propose are just not practicable in the deprived regions.
They are models fit for the developed countries. For instance, most
developing countries are struggling with electricity supply even in the
cities. Most rural communities are not connected to the national electricity
grid. So bridging the digital divide goes beyond providing them with
computers. 

Greetings,
Kwasi

Norbert Bollow <nb at bollow.ch> wrote:

Kicki Nordstrom wrote:

> World Blind Union has tried to negotiate with the producer of screen
> reading programs, that we from industrial could pay more to reduce
> the price for customer in developing countries. But this was not
> possible due to business tradition.

I think this calls for the development of a good screen reader program
as Free Software. This of course needs to be funded somehow, but as
soon as this has been achieved, all visually disabled people
everywhere will be able to benefit from this, and will be able to
always use the newest version without big extra costs, without being
contrained by the "business traditions" of a profit-oriented company.

Greetings,
Norbert.


-- 
Norbert Bollow http://Norbert.ch
President of the Swiss Internet User Group SIUG http://SIUG.ch
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