This way the end user had to keep coming back to a particular manufacturer whenever there was a new computer task to perform. If an application in an office was being used by all the sighted employees, the blind employee might not be able to use that application if the blind person's hardware or software package was not compatible. Many blind people bought into the premise that they must have special application software in order to be able to perform. This is not necessarily true. Blind people must have adaptive software that works with all applications.
Many companies make adaptive software that now works with most mainstream application programs.
For this reason I call these software applications mainstream applications. It is not always as easy for a blind computer user who is not computer- literate to use mainstream application software, but, once it is learned, the blind person is using something less expensive and just as accurate as specialty software packages, if not more accurate. The blind user becomes less reliant on special application software and, as a user, is less special in the workplace. This means that the blind user is included. The blind student is working with the other students, and blind people in the workplace are now in step with their sighted colleagues.