Hello,
I've been totally blind since birth, but have used digital scanners just about since they first came into existence back in the '80's. My blindness did not get in the way until menu-driven scanners came out. I had a Pro-96 for which there was software I could use to program it (Win96 from Starrsoft), but when the radio died in 2018 I decided to try the BCD325P2, even though it's menu driven, after discovering the Freescan software. The developers did a great job trying to incorporate what they called "blind friendly" settings, so I could use my keyboard ans special screen reading software to create and maintain my systems. I was happy to learn that someone was able to add support for DMR, as lots of what I listen to now has gone DMR.
Now to my point, sorry for the possible lengthy background: I am a bit frustrated that no more work is being done with Freescan, as I'd like to do things like working with the band plan editor, quick key manager, and being more clear about what some of the buttons in the configuration menus are. I have tried both Butel and ProScan alternatives, but their interfaces simply don't lend themselves to working with my screen readers. I've spent so many truly happy hours listening to my scanners, and I am sure many, many other blind people throughout the world would love to do the same thing. Unfortunately, they are frustrated that these newer radios are not usable for them. I did reach out to both vendors a while back, but was told that they did not feel as though they could do anything to improve their software. It's also unfortunate that with the significant improvements always taking place with internal memory, etc., that some kind of text-to-speech could be built into some of the radios.
I wanted to write this post in hopes that, by some chance, a developer might be interested in revisiting Freescan to see if it could be improved any more, especially since so much more is happening now where screen readers using Artificial Intelligence may be able to convey more information to help out. Since it's been a while that I mentioned this to the other software vendors, it might also be great if either or both could take a look at their products to see if anything can be done.
I'm not sure if this would be the right place to go into detail, but I wanted to invite anyone who might be interested in this area to join me in a group that I created in groups.io at:
groups.io
Thank you all for listening!
I've been totally blind since birth, but have used digital scanners just about since they first came into existence back in the '80's. My blindness did not get in the way until menu-driven scanners came out. I had a Pro-96 for which there was software I could use to program it (Win96 from Starrsoft), but when the radio died in 2018 I decided to try the BCD325P2, even though it's menu driven, after discovering the Freescan software. The developers did a great job trying to incorporate what they called "blind friendly" settings, so I could use my keyboard ans special screen reading software to create and maintain my systems. I was happy to learn that someone was able to add support for DMR, as lots of what I listen to now has gone DMR.
Now to my point, sorry for the possible lengthy background: I am a bit frustrated that no more work is being done with Freescan, as I'd like to do things like working with the band plan editor, quick key manager, and being more clear about what some of the buttons in the configuration menus are. I have tried both Butel and ProScan alternatives, but their interfaces simply don't lend themselves to working with my screen readers. I've spent so many truly happy hours listening to my scanners, and I am sure many, many other blind people throughout the world would love to do the same thing. Unfortunately, they are frustrated that these newer radios are not usable for them. I did reach out to both vendors a while back, but was told that they did not feel as though they could do anything to improve their software. It's also unfortunate that with the significant improvements always taking place with internal memory, etc., that some kind of text-to-speech could be built into some of the radios.
I wanted to write this post in hopes that, by some chance, a developer might be interested in revisiting Freescan to see if it could be improved any more, especially since so much more is happening now where screen readers using Artificial Intelligence may be able to convey more information to help out. Since it's been a while that I mentioned this to the other software vendors, it might also be great if either or both could take a look at their products to see if anything can be done.
I'm not sure if this would be the right place to go into detail, but I wanted to invite anyone who might be interested in this area to join me in a group that I created in groups.io at:
bdigitalscan groups.io Group
This group is for users of digital police scanners who happen to be blind or visually impaired, or sighted folks who may wish to help these users find ways to make it easier for those users to enjoy many hours of great listening. At present, these scanners are quite difficult for a blind person...
groups.io
Thank you all for listening!
