[Athen] Opinion: is Aira killing or improving independence

David Andrews dandrews at visi.com
Fri Nov 9 04:14:57 PST 2018


Debee:

You are right about Aira and people taking the
easy way out. Another danger is that entities
will use it as a quick accommodation, instead of
fixing their accessibility problems. Intuit pays
for Aira use, for customers in certain
instances. It would be better for all if they
fixed their accessibility problems, once and for all.

Personally I resent being forced to use one
method, when others might be available and/or better.

Dave

At 04:48 PM 11/7/2018, you wrote:

>Content-Language: en-US

>Content-Type: multipart/alternative;

>

>boundary="_000_61C6DD490FBB3D43A1AA33BF158ED7AF02B849F27BMB1FHDALEARN_"

>

>I’ve noticed that many colleges are now

>supplementing help for blind students using

>Aira. Aira is a service that enables one to use

>either their phone’s camera or special glasses

>to show a sighted agent what they are having

>difficulty with and the agent assists. The agent

>can help the user navigate, read signs,

>understand study materials such as charts and

>graphs, and do anything else that “requires” sight.

>

>Aira is also popular with newly-blinded folk,

>because it’s an easy way to get instant help.

>

>Their website is here

>

><https://aira.io/>https://aira.io/

>

>And a an edited description of the new plans is here:

>“AIRA Killing Unlimited Plan, Raising Prices for

>Others, Adding $29 Intro Plan”

>Reported by Blind Bargains

>

><https://www.blindbargains.com/bargains.php?m=19611>https://www.blindbargains.com/bargains.php?m=19611

>

>Copying from that page’s pricing info:

>

>New Plans

>• Intro: 30 minutes for $29 a month. 97 cents per minute.

>• Standard: 120 minutes for $99 a month. 83 cents per minute.

>• Advanced: 300 minutes for $199 a month. 66 cents per minute.

>• Premium (not advertised on website): 700

>minutes for $329 a month. 47 cents per minute.

>

>Former Legacy Plans

>• Basic: 100 minutes for $89 a month. 89 cents per minute.

>• Plus: 200 minutes for $129 a month. 65 cents per minute.

>• Pro: 400 minutes for $199 a month. 50 cents per minute.

>• Unlimited: unlimited minutes for $329 a month. 47 cents per minute.

>

>Other Notes

>• Additional minutes can be purchased for $50

>for 50 minutes, or a dollar per minute, which is

>higher than the cost of minutes on any of the current plans.

>• All plans except Intro can be shared with up to 2 other users.

>• Those wishing to use the Horizon glasses also

>will need to pay an additional $25 a month for

>24 months or $600 one-time. Horizon is also not available

>on the Intro plan.

>• The plan for NFB members also remains, which

>is 140 minutes for $99 a month, so essentially 20 additional minutes.

>

>What bothers me about Aira is that it’s tempting

>to use it to simply save time, which works great

>if you already know how to do something on your

>own. If you need to make sure you put tuna in

>the sandwich and not cat food, or you need to

>understand the anatomy textbook to prepare for

>an exam, Aira can be a lifesaver. I have friends

>who know how to use their phone to identify

>packages, and they know how to ask for

>directions to navigate an unfamiliar area. But

>they use Aira because it’s more convenient than

>struggling. It’s nice to have an Aira agent tell

>you if your colors match or you really are at the right restaurant.

>

>However, what happens when using Aira becomes a

>substitute for learning to do things on your

>own? Nobody’s talking about this, but just as

>notetakers are often used when a student would

>do better with notetaking technologies like

>Sonocent, my concern is that Aira will become

>the easy but pricey fix. Technology does this

>too – the modern taxi driver seems unable to

>cope when his GPS goes down. So maybe I’m just a

>luddite. Still, when I FaceTime my girlfriend in

>Walmart to check the color of a garment before

>purchasing it, I’m glad I don’t need Aira to function.

>

>--Debee

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman12.u.washington.edu/pipermail/athen-list/attachments/20181109/55976e90/attachment.html>


More information about the athen-list mailing list