"Integration" in the world of internet, life and economics.
(Report 2000)
Three years ago it was impossible to think that Integration would become as successful as it is today. The founders of the visually impaired users club, "Integration," did not even dream that the activities of our small public organization would become so significant. As of today we can boast of:
However, numbers alone do not accurately reflect all the achievements made through club activities. Only three years ago not many people knew about blind computer users in Russia or that it was even possible for blind people to actively use a computer. The Internet didn't have much information about this segment of the population.
During our first two years the club didn't have an active information policy. Only one thousand visitors reached our club web-site during first year. Unfortunately, they did not find much in the way of interesting or valuable information there. However, last summer the club voted on and implemented a new information policy. The driving principle was to break the silence.
Public dialogue and articles in a variety of publications promoted the public activities of the club. It didnt take long before we saw the results of our work. New people wanted to participate in the clubs work, private and public officials began to consult with the club about social and technical issues attached to the visually impaired, and much more. The club sought out, and built a foundation to maintain, contacts with foreign and domestic producers of software and hardware for the blind.
A significant problem was the fact that software and hardware for the blind is usually very expensive. An effort to reduce those costs was chosen as the main direction for the clubs information policy. Of course, Its difficult for a company to accept that its high prices will reduce purchases, however, the respect the club has garnered from public, private, and government sources make it difficult for these hardware and software companies to ignore what the club presents from its supporters.
"Integration" conducted marketing research and talked with software and hardware officials, and tried to convince them that they ultimately would benefit from increased sales of their products if they offered more realistic and feasible prices.
Integration has realized great success. The year has passed and we are pleased to report that prices have dropped on important access software and hardware. The speech synthesizer "Digalo" was discounted by 20 times; the Boum Redeck company lowered the price for its screen access package "Virgo" for Russian users to a much more reasonable $200 (U.S.). This makes the package more accessible for the blind computer user in Russia. A quality product at a reasonable price will sell itself. Now it is possible to say that in the near future we expect to see significant growth in the number of blind computer users in Russia.
So, Integration is doing right things at the right time. We hope that our 2001 year is going to be even more successful.
Vice-President of the club
