Freedom Scientific Lease-to-Own

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To : Freedom Scientific
As members of the blind and vision impaired community, or as people who are acquainted with said community, most of us rely on screen reading technology to access our computers. Many of us either use, or would like to use your JAWS For Windows Screen reader. Some of us would like, or find it necessary to upgrade to a more recent version. It is no secret that most of us do not have a high income, and it is also no secret that access technology is very costly.
We are aware of a policy which is implimented by a few of your competitors - the option to lease-to-own a product. We are horrified and angry aboutyour lack of implimentation of this policy. This petition is to strongly encourage, recommend and ask you to implement such a policy as soon as possible. This in turn would encourage more people to use your products, and will give more people the ability to purchase or upgrade your software.

660 Signatures

  • Naama Erez
    • Location
    • Israel
    • Vision status (blind, vision impaired or sighted)
    • blind
    • Additional comments
    • В
  • Michael Capelle
    • Location
    • wausau, wi
    • Vision status (blind, vision impaired or sighted)
    • blind
  • Geoff Shang
    • Location
    • Israel
    • Vision status (blind, vision impaired or sighted)
    • blind
    • Additional comments
    • Most mainstream goods of this value can be bought over time these days. It makes sense for everyone. Adaptive technology prices seem to assume that people can get funding to buy it, but many of us can't.
  • Keao
    • Vision status (blind, vision impaired or sighted)
    • Blind
  • melissa J. Hoppe
    • Location
    • US
    • Vision status (blind, vision impaired or sighted)
    • totally blind
    • Additional comments
    • I think that a lot more adaptive technology could be sold if manufactures offered affordable monthly payment plans of $50 to $100 per month. Most blind people who aren't being helped out by government agencies just can't afford the software and/hardware they want, but if they could pay in installments, it might be easier.
  • Simon Cowan
    • Location
    • South Wales, UK
    • Vision status (blind, vision impaired or sighted)
    • Blind
  • Darryl Breffe
    • Location
    • Hyannis, MA.
    • Vision status (blind, vision impaired or sighted)
    • blind
    • Additional comments
    • Please make your products affordable for all who need.
  • Kevin White
    • Location
    • Richmond, VA
    • Vision status (blind, vision impaired or sighted)
    • Blind
    • Additional comments
    • As a social Worker, I fully recommend adoption of this policy.
  • Alan Wheeler
    • Vision status (blind, vision impaired or sighted)
    • blind
    • Additional comments
    • Without an option like the lease-to-own, FS faces the possibility of pricing itself right out of the market.
  • Chester Thrash
    • Location
    • Atlanta, Georgia
    • Vision status (blind, vision impaired or sighted)
    • Blind
  • Kristin Mills
    • Location
    • .
    • Vision status (blind, vision impaired or sighted)
    • Blind with some vision.
  • Dyann Burden
    • Location
    • Michigan
    • Vision status (blind, vision impaired or sighted)
    • Blind
  • Rick Harmon
    • Location
    • Akron Ohio
    • Vision status (blind, vision impaired or sighted)
    • Blind
  • Monty
    • Location
    • California
    • Vision status (blind, vision impaired or sighted)
    • Blind
    • Additional comments
    • Having a lease to own option would be nice, since not everyone can afford to keep upgrading their JAWS for over $250 every time a major version comes out. Initial purchases would increase too I'd suspect, as people can more easily afford the product
  • Jeffrey T. Shockley
    • Location
    • US
    • Vision status (blind, vision impaired or sighted)
    • Blind
  • Darrell Shandrow
    • Location
    • Tempe, AZ
    • Vision status (blind, vision impaired or sighted)
    • blind
    • Additional comments
    • It only makes sense, FS, for you to provide the greatest numbers of options for purchasing your products. Please do this. More choice is always better.
  • Edwin
    • Location
    • Singapore
    • Vision status (blind, vision impaired or sighted)
    • Blind
    • Additional comments
    • I whole heartedly agree with this petition. With the economy down and pricy paths and we as blind indivisuals, who are struggling more than the sighted world, we already got to fork out much more to keep up with the technology. I find no harm in implementing such an arrangement to burden down our costs and yet letting us benefiting from the latest from your products. We are not asking for lowering of prices, of-course it would be great if you could look in to it, but rather, to just have a list to own plan, just like what your other competitors are doing. Thanks and hope to hear good news soon.
  • kelvin
    • Location
    • singapore
    • Vision status (blind, vision impaired or sighted)
    • blind
  • stella
    • Vision status (blind, vision impaired or sighted)
    • sighted
  • Joy Tilton
    • Vision status (blind, vision impaired or sighted)
    • Totally Blind
  • Dave Marthouse
    • Location
    • Virginia
    • Vision status (blind, vision impaired or sighted)
    • blind
  • djc
    • Location
    • Sacramento, ca
    • Vision status (blind, vision impaired or sighted)
    • Blind
    • Additional comments
    • If costs were lower that would help more people.
  • james hooper
    • Location
    • denver
    • Vision status (blind, vision impaired or sighted)
    • totally blind
    • Additional comments
    • having a viable ulternative to regular price in this tuff economic time makes sense and would bring more blind people aboard having pride that they themselves were able to aford something so useful
  • Brandon B
    • Location
    • Maple Ridge, British Columbia, Canada
    • Vision status (blind, vision impaired or sighted)
    • blind
    • Additional comments
    • Freedom should adopt this for the good PR alone.
  • Julie Morales
    • Location
    • NC, US
  • Lino L Morales
    • Location
    • North Carolina
    • Vision status (blind, vision impaired or sighted)
    • Totally blind
    • Additional comments
    • Serotek and GW Micro have implemented something like this. Now its high time the world's leading maker of screen readers should have a lease to own option!
  • Brenda G.
    • Location
    • tn
    • Vision status (blind, vision impaired or sighted)
    • blind
  • Cherryl
    • Location
    • Canada
    • Vision status (blind, vision impaired or sighted)
    • Blind
  • Mark Driesenga
    • Location
    • Hamilton, MI
    • Vision status (blind, vision impaired or sighted)
    • Blind
    • Additional comments
    • While I am not necessarily "horrified" by the absence of such a policy, I do see where it could benefit the blind/VI community at large. I can honestly say that, whereas I find such petitions as these to be reactionary rather than helpful, this is a rare exception. Having the option would be good since the product is rather expensive.
  • Robert L. Moore
    • Location
    • Oklahoma
  • Jessica Sears
    • Location
    • Florida
    • Vision status (blind, vision impaired or sighted)
    • Totally Blind
    • Additional comments
    • This would be great especially for people who start learning jaws at a young age.
  • Clare Page
    • Location
    • France
    • Additional comments
    • Given the high cost of JAWS when purchased, a lease-to-own scheme would make it more affordable for more people, so I am in favour of this idea. And I imagine the same reasoning would apply to any other Freedom Scientific product.
  • HANA GUTKIND
  • Chong Yuen Li
    • Location
    • Singapore
    • Vision status (blind, vision impaired or sighted)
    • Sighted
  • elsie
    • Location
    • sg
    • Vision status (blind, vision impaired or sighted)
    • sighted
    • Additional comments
    • i believe the motivation behind such an invention is to assist the underprivileged. Thus it goes against the business philosophy if the product is priced out of reach to them.
  • alice lau
    • Location
    • singapore
    • Vision status (blind, vision impaired or sighted)
    • sighted
    • Additional comments
    • no
  • lynn white
    • Location
    • Texas
    • Vision status (blind, vision impaired or sighted)
    • Blind
    • Additional comments
    • I believe this would help the end user as well as Freedom Scientific
  • Chris Judd
    • Location
    • St. Louis Mo
    • Vision status (blind, vision impaired or sighted)
    • blind
  • Steady
    • Location
    • Singapore
    • Vision status (blind, vision impaired or sighted)
    • blind
  • Chia Kwek Fah, Bernard
  • Shawlene and Eddie Duke
  • Josh Swatosh
    • Vision status (blind, vision impaired or sighted)
    • Blind
    • Additional comments
    • You definitely need a "Lease To Own" option! Your pricing structure is BEYOND unreasonable. Not everybody can get a government agency to help them purchase your products!
  • Wendy Rigden
    • Vision status (blind, vision impaired or sighted)
    • Blind
  • jennifer
    • Vision status (blind, vision impaired or sighted)
    • blind
    • Additional comments
    • this is long overdue.
  • John Greer
    • Additional comments
    • Owner and Administrator of www.blindcrawler.com
  • Eric Horvath
    • Location
    • Las Vegas Nv.
    • Vision status (blind, vision impaired or sighted)
    • Blind
  • Sarah
    • Vision status (blind, vision impaired or sighted)
    • blind
    • Additional comments
    • please make this possible. I've talked to sails staff a few years ago about this, and they agree. Please also make this possible for your hardware as well as your software. I mean come on. get in the real world. We cannot shell out 4000 dollars for a braille lite or packmate and sometimes services here will not get us what we want. We cannot also shell out 2000 dollars for jaws wich is so unstable that is it not worth it anyways. but if you do not do this we will all use something free called NVDA.
  • Julia Johnson
    • Location
    • USA
    • Vision status (blind, vision impaired or sighted)
    • legally blind
    • Additional comments
    • As a self employed individual I am not eligible to receive assistance from an agency to purchase assistive technology. Since the cost of this technology is extremely high having the option of a payment plan would make purchasing the necessary software much easier.
  • Dave Marthouse
    • Location
    • Brookneal, Virginia
    • Vision status (blind, vision impaired or sighted)
    • blind
  • le houйrou Jean
    • Vision status (blind, vision impaired or sighted)
    • blind