Film critic Roger Ebert gave Apple's VoiceOver technology two thumbs up in allowing him to communicate after losing his voice to cancer surgery, but said his health insurance would only offer to cover an $8,000 device that didn't work nearly as well.
Many users with disabilities are barred from choosing cheap, off the shelf technologies by Medicare or private insurance companies who insist on only covering far more expensive devices that don't work as well.
An article in the New York Times profiled Kara Lynn, a mother who lost her voice to ALS. To help her communicate, Medicare paid for an $8,000 Windows PC running speech synthesis software.
Government rules require the PC be disabled from doing anything other than speech, in the fear that Lynn might benefit from features unrelated to her disability, such as web browsing. The Times reported that Medicare's PC vendor, DynaVox, "disables the general computing tools. After the insurer pays, customers can pay $50 to DynaVox to reactivate the full functions."
more:
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/09/19/roger_ebert_adds_to_health_care_debate_on_iphone_mac_use.html
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