PSA: Windows 10 Is Still Free For Those Who Use Assistive Technologies (theregister.co.uk)

BarbaraHudson writes: When is a deadline not a deadline? The Register is reporting that the Windows 10 upgrade is still free for 7/8.1 users. [Microsoft] had previously said that those who use assistive technologies would continue to be eligible after the July 29th deadline had passed, and I pointed out in a story last month that Microsoft hadn't figured out yet how they would be able to tell who would be eligible. Looks like they never did figure that one out. [The Register reports:] "Microsoft's year-long Windows 10 free upgrade offer ended over the weekend, but it's still possible to secure Redmond's finest -- even the new Anniversary Update -- for the low low price of 0.00 in whatever currency you prefer. The free upgrade is reserved for those who use assistive technologies, the many features that magnify text, offer text-to-speech or otherwise assist those who don't see or hear with the perfect acuity. But The Register browsed the site and found no checks before downloading. It looks like it's open to anyone."

Comments

Re:Oh thanks guys

[BarbaraHudson]

It looks like many of us suspected - the deadline was a "soft" one. It encouraged people who were on the fence to jump, bumping up the numbers. Can't really blame them, if they hadn't set an artificial deadline, people would just keep putting it off.

If they had killer assistive tech without the data mining, I'd probably give it a whirl ... but when simple things like the screen magnifier give me nausea and don't close by hitting ESC but need you to either remember a keyboard shortcut or kill the process manually, I'm a bit leery. Especially since the screen reader doesn't work until you're logged in. Imagine a forced update that makes the machine not boot - no screen reader, what are you going to do except ask someone else for help? Forced updates are a deal-breaker for those using assistive technology.