US DOJ Says Kindle In Classroom Hurts Blind Students 492
angry tapir writes "Three US universities will stop promoting the use of Amazon.com's Kindle DX e-book reader in classrooms after complaints that the device doesn't give blind students equal access to information. Settlements with Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Pace University in New York City and Reed College in Portland, Oregon, were announced Wednesday by the US Department of Justice. The National Federation of the Blind and the American Council of the Blind had complained that use of the Kindle devices discriminates against students with vision problems."
Re:Amazon should love this precedent (Score:5, Informative)
"he Kindle DX has the capability to convert text to synthesized speech, but the device does not include text-to-speech functionality for its menu and navigational controls, the DOJ said in a press release. "
Re:Uhmm (Score:5, Informative)
The thing is, Amazon has announced previously that they're working on enabling text-to-speech in the menu, so that particular issue will be moot (although I don't know what the timeline is). The bigger problem is that publishers can disable the text-to-speech in their e-books on the Kindle, which would render an accessible menu fairly pointless. (The same groups mentioned in the article also have been trying to pressure those publishers who have disabled it (e.g., Random House) to re-enable text-to-speech in their Kindle e-books.)
Re:ADA? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Amazon should love this precedent (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Hmm, this seems illogical. (Score:5, Informative)
Sure it can [wikipedia.org]. Maybe The National Federation of the Blind and the American Council of the Blind should get off their asses and sponsor it.
Ebooks not the problem, kindle navigation is (Score:5, Informative)
I know no one reads the articles, as that would get in the way of the knee-jerking we all love to do. But the article makes it quite clear: the kindle includes a text-to-speech application, but no way for visually impaired folks to navigate. Therefore, the Kindle is not the right choice of e-book reader for institutions such as colleges and universities to promote. It is the Kindle that is unusable by the blind, not the e-books themselves.
Re:The Kindle has the ablity to do audio (Score:4, Informative)
Kindle lacks navigation for visually impaired (Score:5, Informative)
The problem isn't e-books or readers per-se. The Kindle even includes a text to speech application. But the Kindle lacks a way for visually impaired readers to navigate, and so, it is absolutely useless as it is. All that needs to be done is to tie the user interface into the text to speech application. That's it. Until that very, very simple problem is solved, colleges and universities are correct not to promote the use of this device. A good bit of publicity early on will ensure that all e-book readers in the future have this simple feature.
Re:Kindle lacks navigation for visually impaired (Score:5, Informative)
Amazon.com is making changes to the Kindle to make it more accessible to blind people, a spokesman there said. The Kindle team is working on an audio-based menu system, and the devices will have a super-size font added, Amazon said in a press release. Those new features are due out by mid-2010, the company said.
Blame the Author's Guild, not Amazon. (Score:3, Informative)
Yes, Amazon should make it easier to navigate but maybe positive pressure rather than lawsuits to prevent the feature would help speed that along.
Re:Kindle lacks navigation for visually impaired (Score:3, Informative)
how about provide a braille e-book reader? If somebody made one Amazon would probably support it.
like this? http://www.yankodesign.com/2009/04/17/braille-e-book/ [yankodesign.com]
or this? http://gadgets.softpedia.com/news/Electronic-Braille-Reader-Helps-The-Blind-Surf-The-Internet-2492-01.html [softpedia.com]
or this? http://www.humanware.com/en-usa/products/blindness/deafblind_communicator/_details/id_118/deafblind_communicator.html [humanware.com]
or this? http://www.gizmag.com/go/5876/ [gizmag.com]
The tech is almost there, perhaps the DOJ would front some MONEY to Amazon to make a kindle compatible braille reader based on one of these technologies? Of course then the people that hand-type braille pages at $$ per page will resent being out of a job...
Nonsense (Score:5, Informative)
You didn't read the FA. The complaint is that the navigation menus etc are not included in the text-to-speech converter.
Re:Hmm, this seems illogical. (Score:4, Informative)
Couple of things, I used a monocular (basically a small telescope), a tape recorder (for later transcription at my own pace), carbon paper and a classmate with good handwriting or I would just get the notes from either the instructor or have an aide work with the instructor to prepare notes for me.
With the support I had getting through school became much easier and enjoyable.
Re:Hmm, this seems illogical. (Score:5, Informative)