[Athen] Equatio price increase

[Michele Bromley]

I haven't done a lot of testing with Mathpix OCR <https://mathpix.com/ocr>
yet, but coupled with MathType, their Windows snipping tool
<https://mathpix.com/win_app/mathpix_snipping_tool_setup.exe> appears to be
solid alternative to EquatIO for the alt. formats production side of things.

Michele Joy Bromley

IT Accessibility Coordinator

Office of Information Technology (OIT) <https://www.pdx.edu/oit/>

Portland State University (PSU) <http://www.pdx.edu/>

[image: The Portland State University logo includes intertwined letters P,
S, and U that represent the interconnectedness of the university to the
city, region, and world.] <http://www.pdx.edu/>

Office: SMSU 18

Phone: 503-725-8395

Email: michele.bromley at pdx.edu

Website: www.pdx.edu/accessibility


“The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless
of disability is an essential aspect.” ~ Tim Berners-Lee


On Thu, May 30, 2019 at 10:09 AM Cassandra L Tex <cassandra.tex at humboldt.edu>
wrote:


> Greetings All,

> Shortly after the EquatIO webinar that Susan and Texthelp

> presented, we jumped on the EquatIO ship (we are also a Read&Write

> campus).  Our subscription will renew in July, and I have not heard of a

> pricing change.  Perhaps this pricing change is for new customers?   I’m

> sorry to hear that they changed their pricing and they are pricing new

> customers out of the market.  Will be on the lookout for communications

> from them regarding renewal pricing.

>

> Cassandra

>

> On Thursday, May 30, 2019, Wink Harner <foreigntype at gmail.com> wrote:

>

>> Leyna et al ATHEN-ites,

>>

>> It is discouraging when we are finally presented with Susan Kelmer

>> identified as "a game changer" in alt-text conversion technology for math

>> and the developer prices it out of reach, so much so that it becomes an

>> unjustifiable expense. What a shame TextHelp has deliberately changed their

>> pricing structure on Equatio. You and I and many hundreds of others who are

>> in alt-text production to make materials accessible for students with

>> disabilities are intermediaries in the sales & marketing pitch from

>> TextHelp --their aim is large scale, open site licenses on campuses for

>> their students...Not for us making things accessible for the students.

>> Perhaps TH sees us as incidental in their sales plan? As hard as we in DSS

>> work to forecast tech needs for our departments and our students, how much

>> of a challenge it is for us to plan our department budgets over years'

>> (mine was prepared in 1-3-5 year cycles), to plan our staff time based on

>> cost to produce accessible materials, staff time etc., our break even point

>> is now out of sight! I hope someone at TextHelp pays attention to this

>> thread and they reconsider this pricing structure.

>>

>> Sorry to hear this news from you. Many of us in the production field were

>> looking forward to using and promoting this app. I introduced it in this

>> year's grad class curriculum at CUNY, but may consider shelving it with the

>> "also ran" apps --with a BIG disclaimer about the pricing. I try to provide

>> students with alternatives such as free, low cost, or open source software

>> available to the big ticket software to explore as part of the class. There

>> are few alternatives to making math accessible for BVI or those with

>> reading disabilities who need bi-modal text & audio output. I won't be able

>> to give anything to compare it to, so it may be take out of my curriculum.

>>

>> My thoughts.

>>

>> Wink Harner

>> Accessibility Consultant/Alternative Text Production

>> The Foreign Type

>>

>> Portland OR

>> foreigntype at gmail.com

>> 480-984-0034

>>

>> This email was dictated using Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Please forgive

>> quirks, misrecognitions, or errata .

>>

>>

>> On Thu, May 30, 2019 at 8:57 AM Leyna Bencomo <lbencomo at uccs.edu> wrote:

>>

>>> I am very disappointed in the TextHelp people right now.  They have

>>> completely revamped their pricing for Equatio.  They initially told me

>>> $1500 for 150 licenses per year.  That was the minimum.  I was planning to

>>> get our Math college, Office of IT and Disability Services to pay for it.

>>> After hearing how we Alternate Media departments are planning to use the

>>> licenses, TextHelp has changed their minds now and decided they have to

>>> treat it like Read & Write enterprise licensing.  Since we have 12,000

>>> students at UCCS and since we do subscribe to Read & Write they are now

>>> planning to charge us $3690 per year to subscribe.  If we didn’t have R&W,

>>> they’d charge $4920 per year.  We can’t afford that just to remediate a

>>> couple of math books a year.  I’m going to recommend we don’t purchase it.

>>>

>>>

>>>

>>>

>>> We truly would only use 2 licenses in Alt Media and at this point 1

>>> student license for a math student who can’t use his hands to write.  I

>>> can’t justify the expense.  Oh well, so much for new technology.

>>> Hopefully, one of their competitors will come up with similar tech soon at

>>> a more reasonable price.  For now, back to MathType for us.

>>>

>>>

>>>

>>> *Leyna Bencomo *

>>>

>>> Assistive Technology Specialist

>>>

>>> Office of Information Technology

>>>

>>> University of Colorado Colorado Springs

>>>

>>> 1420 Austin Bluffs Parkway

>>> <https://www.google.com/maps/search/1420+Austin+Bluffs+Parkway?entry=gmail&source=g>,

>>> EPC 215

>>>

>>> Colorado Springs, CO 80918

>>>

>>> (719) 255-4202 / lbencomo at uccs.edu

>>>

>>> http://www.uccs.edu/~it/

>>>

>>> [image: sig logo small]

>>>

>>>

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