When I was at school, I was fortunate enough to have access to assistive technologies on Microsoft Windows, thanks to government funding that was available to people like myself, to help better our education. Such funding covered a notebook computer, a screen reader(1), an embosser(2) (Braille(3) printer), a scanner, and an external hardware speech synthesizer(4). The assistive technologies, being the screen reader, with the speech synthesizer, and the Embosser, allowed me to gain access, either digitally, or in hard copy Braille, to materials I needed for my studies. However, such technologies were by no means cheap. Excluding the cost of the notebook, the assistive technologies alone ran into the thousands of dollars, and yes, each piece of technology, the screen reader software, the speech synthesizer, and the Embosser, were worth at least AU$1000. As I said, luckily, there was funding from the Australian government system to cover the costs for this essential equipment. Since I was also fortunate enough to attend a private school, this meant that all my equipment was donated to me at the end of my schooling.

Unfortunately, at least in New South Wales, any student with a vision impairment who is in the public school system, must give back any technology they received to the education department once they have completed their final year of school. This leaves them with no assistive technology for them to use in the future, unless they already owned such technology, which they had purchased themselves. I found this out a couple of years after I had finished school, from a blind friend who went through the public education system here in Australia, and had to purchase the assistive technology he needed for his university studies, as no other funding outside the school system was available. My friend was at least AU$6000 out of pocket, just to purchase one piece of assistive technology hardware, that being a portable note taker, with synthesized speech output, and refreshable Braille. He also had to invest in a copy of the screen reader software to access Windows, which again, was at least another AU$1000.

Links
(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screen_reader
(2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braille_embosser
(3) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braille
(4) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speech_synthesis