Posted on 01/14/2010 5:41:51 AM PST by ml/nj
The U.S. Justice Department has struck deals with three universities not to promote Amazon.com Inc.'s Kindle or other electronic-book readers unless the devices are fully accessible to blind students.
The legal settlements were made with Pace University in New York; Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland; and Reed College in Portland, Ore.
Two organizations representing the blind had sued after universities announced pilot classroom projects using the Kindle.
...
The Justice Department's civil rights division began examining the issue of whether the use of Kindles and other e-readers violated the Americans with Disabilities Act. In June, the National Federation of the Blind and the American Council of the Blind joined a blind ASU student in suing Arizona State, alleging the Kindle's inaccessibility to blind students constituted a violation of federal law.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
These are times which try men's souls. This is completely insane! I don't even like the whole Kindle thing. I like real books. But they will be banned next. They really "discriminate" against the blind.
ML/NJ
What more do they want?
This becomes obvious in all facets of life, doesn't it? The patients are in charge of the asylum.
It does seem odd that all of society must be equally crippled in order to have "equality".
Monitors that are Braile capable.
This is probably just another shakedown.
The universities, or maybe Amazon, will pay some "advocacy group" an huge sum of money for some bogus "counseling service" or public relations campaign, and the whole thing will simply go away.
OMG. Regular text books can’t be used by the truly blind.
How about audio books? (illustrations, charts and graphs are an obvious issue for ALL content)
How about a headset for the kindle?
Should concerts be banned because the deaf can’t hear them?
Should spices be banned because some people can’t taste/smell them?
I don’t see a big deal in making a Kindle style device that would work with braille. A flat surface with programmable buttons that raise up and down for each page. I admit there is probably a small market for them and not much profit after R&D but it certainly can be done. Thinking back to my college days I’m surprised that the justice department hasn’t started going after the porn industry for not catering to the blind either...
"They might feel better if you gave them some cash" -
paraphrase from "Get Over It" - The Eagles
Apparently the main menu can’t talk so the blind are not able to use it. But what’s next—the doj banning universities buying cars? The blind can’t operate those either. Life discriminates against the blind. Someone can easily invent a reader they could hold to the menu. Probably already have. If there’s a market for it, it will exist.
You guys are all nuts.
The government is right!!!!
We should also ban cars since blind people can’t operate them.
We should ban airplanes, motor cycles, bikes, etc. for the same reason.
The list is long. Make up your own list.
We must put a stop to anything that can’t be operated by everyone regardless of their physical condition.
There is no logical end to this nonsense. I hate the ADA!!!
If the publisher doesn’t have a digital file they chop books and run them through scanners. Run the image file through OCR software to get a digital file and then use text to speech software.
The Kindle would make it easier. Adding text to speech software shouldn’t be too hard.
What more do they want?
It does a passable job of reading to you - without the inflections of an audio book.
My daughter bought me a kindle and it took me a little while to get used to it, but at this point, I can actually say I love my kindle.
With the ease that you can change type size, I can read a book without worrying about finding my reading glasses! For those who are "legally blind" without being totally blind, it should be a real boost.
Read-to-Me: With the experimental Text-to-Speech feature, Kindle can read newspapers, magazines, blogs, and books out loud to you, unless the book's rights holder made the feature unavailable.
Another example of the government pissing away dollars and wasting time while the private sector takes care of business. I take there are not enought gangs, mafia and terrorists out there threatening the life of innocent people to keep the justice department busy. They need to waste time protecting blind people from an imaginary boogie-man.
Down in the body of that article the guy at DOJ, Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez, is quoted as saying "We must be sure that emerging technologies offer individuals with disabilities the same opportunities as other students"
So, to make sure no one gets ahead of anyone else Perez is going to do what he can to stop the use of electronic book technology.
I read about this once ~ it was a story by Kurt Vonnegut ~ "Harrison Bergeron" I do believe. No doubt lawyer Perez didn't read that one in his "Hispanic Literature" classes. And now there's no chance that he ever will catch up with the rest of the world ~ all those university level literature courses vend Spanish language versions of "Harrison Bergeron" to their students in "talking book formats" only!
Ban paintings since the blind can’t see them.
ML/NJ
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.