hello everyone.
this may be a windows centric opensource project, but the goal is honorable. that goal: provide a low cost (or free) alternative to blind windows users. Right now, for a blind user to use windows, they either go with NVDA or do without because very few of them can afford the nearly $900 plus yearly SMA contract (another $250). I know a lot of people are short on funds given the economy, but we (the blind) are hit far harder than most.
here is the letter the NVDA project sent to me this morning:
>
> Dear nvda users,
>
> Sorry for the long email, please bare with us to the end.
>
> The time has come to show your appreciation and your determination for NVDA development to continue.
> Due to the economic downturn NV Access has received less grants than what we would have hoped for.
>
> We all have a duty and an obligation to request from the organizations working for the blind such as the RNIB, UK or AFB/NFB, USA or the appropriate blind organization in your country, to tell them that NVDA has been and continues to be a useful and valuable tool to provide accessibility for all of us and that they should promote and sponsor the excellent work that is being done.
>
> Despite all the politics and the slow movement within organizations, we the real NVDA users are able to keep NVDA development going
> if each one of us took their responsibility seriously.
> This is without having to wait for organizations or companies to give grants to NV Access.
>
> Due to many advantages, benefits and unique features of NVDA, the number of NVDA users are growing but sadly the personal donations are not matching this increase and are often not regular.
>
> What we want to say clearly is that any regular donation large or small, will keep Jamie and Michael in their full time employment working for NVDA.
> What we have to remember is that they are two blind individuals like you and me, but are gifted with rare skills that many of us could benefit from.
>
> We should work hard not to put them in a situation where they have to choose between doing something that they love and beleave in (improving NVDA), and having to provide the necessities for their families and children.
>
> The current funding is able to keep both of them employed until september this year, and if the donations haven't increased by then
> they may have to look for alternative employment.
>
> Even if one of them leaves and the other continues the work load will be a lot harder, and progress will be much slower.
> This will directly impact on us because we will have to wait for much longer before tickets can be solved, which will cause us a lot of frustration and anguish. This is not what we have been accustomed to in the last few years, we often see regular releases and each version is superior to the previous one.
>
> We all need to understand that, what is required is for each one of us to donate according to our circumstances, may it be as little as 5 or 10 dollars a month, this will be enough to keep the project going.
> We Thank those of you who already donate on a regular basis.
>
> Put this in context, we easely spend 5 dollars on a coffee
> or 10/20 dollars on a meal when we eat out, surely NVDA deserves this token amount?
>
> Many people do charity events, such as running a marathon, doing a tandem ride, or baking and seling cakes in their community to raise money for canser research or any other worth while charity, we can all do the same but for NV Access which is also a charity.
>
> Please don't lose this opportunity to support NVDA, because if we fail to set up regular donations, in a few months time we will all have to start paying for expensive screenreaders because NVDA would not have been developed and updated to match our latest needs.
>
> We are writing this email as individuals that strongly believe in open source, and as volunteer contributors to NVDA. We understand that it is hard for Jamie and Michael to keep sending emails asking for donations because it feels bad to keep asking, but we the users should act before we reach the point of no return.
>
> Please repost/translate or anything that you feel appropriate, and please don't forget to raise donations.
>
> Link for donations:
> http://www.nvaccess.org/wiki/Donate
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