Posted on 08/03/2010 5:43:53 AM PDT by markomalley
Did you know the Justice Department threatened several universities with legal action because they took part in an experimental program to allow students to use the Amazon Kindle for textbooks?
Last year, the schools -- among them Princeton, Arizona State and Case Western Reserve -- wanted to know if e-book readers would be more convenient and less costly than traditional textbooks. The environmentally conscious educators also wanted to reduce the huge amount of paper students use to print files from their laptops.
It seemed like a promising idea until the universities got a letter from the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, now under an aggressive new chief, Thomas Perez, telling them they were under investigation for possible violations of the Americans With Disabilities Act.
From its introduction in 2007, the Kindle has drawn criticism from the National Federation of the Blind and other activist groups. While the Kindle's text-to-speech feature could read a book aloud, its menu functions required sight to operate. "If you could get a sighted person to fire up the device and start reading the book to you, that's fine," says Chris Danielsen, a spokesman for the federation. "But other than that, there was really no way to use it."
In May 2009, Amazon announced the pilot program, under which it would provide Kindle DX readers to a few universities. It wasn't a huge deal; Princeton's plan, for example, involved three courses and a total of 51 students, and only in the fall semester of that year. University spokeswoman Emily Aronson says the program was voluntary and students could opt out of using the Kindle. "There were no students with a visual impairment who had registered for the three classes," says Aronson.
Nevertheless, in June 2009, the federation filed a complaint with the Justice Department, accusing the schools of violating the ADA. Perez and his team went to work.
"We acted swiftly to respond to complaints we received about the use of the Amazon Kindle," Perez recently told a House committee. "We must remain vigilant to ensure that as new devices are introduced, people with disabilities are not left behind."
The Civil Rights Division informed the schools they were under investigation. In subsequent talks, the Justice Department demanded the universities stop distributing the Kindle; if blind students couldn't use the device, then nobody could. The Federation made the same demand in a separate lawsuit against Arizona State.
It's an approach that bothers some civil rights experts. "As a blind person, I would never want to be associated with any movement that punished sighted students, particularly for nothing they had ever done," says Russell Redenbaugh, a California investor who lost his sight in a childhood accident and later served for 15 years on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. "It's a gross injustice to disadvantage one group, and it's bad policy that breeds resentment, not compassion."
Some officials at the schools were puzzled. Given the speed of technological development and the reality of competition among technology companies -- Apple products were already fully text-to-speech capable -- wasn't this a problem the market would solve?
That's not Perez's way. To him, keeping the Kindle out of sighted students' hands underscored "the importance of full and equal educational opportunities for everyone."
In early 2010, after most of the courses were over, the Justice Department reached agreement with the schools, and the federation settled with Arizona State. The schools denied violating the ADA but agreed that until the Kindle was fully accessible, nobody would use it.
One obvious solution to the problem, of course, was to fix the Kindle. Early on, Amazon told federation officials it would apply text-to-speech technology to the Kindle's menu and function keys. And sure enough, last week the company announced a new generation of Kindles that are fully accessible to the blind. While the Justice Department was making demands, and Perez was making speeches, the market was working.
But as Amazon was unveiling the new Kindle last week, Perez was sending a letter to educators warning them they must use technology "in a manner that is permissible under federal law."
Now, Perez is at work on a far bigger project, one that could eventually declare the Internet a "public accommodation" under the ADA. That could result in a raft of new Justice Department regulations for disabled access to all sorts of Web sites.
Of course, most Web access problems are already being solved by the market, but that won't stop the Justice Department's zealous civil rights enforcer.
This government medusa has got to be stopped.
**********************
Do you mean hydra? That took multiple decapitations.
It’s time to tell the govt to shove it up their smelly Obama.
I guess that by the idiot reasoning of the justice clown show, universities should also not issue computers.
Chase down and capture all govt idiots and guillotine them NOW!
where do the obamites FIND all these radicals?
They seem to have stacked the bureaucracy with radicals for every imaginable cause (even “dust” regulators at EPA?) and put them in charge of the adults.
Will no one rid us of these troublesome radical bureaucrats ... ??
I'm waiting for the Feds to sue auto makers. Obviously cars are biased against the blind.
So how does traditional textbooks help the blind?
So, have I got this right...if some people can’t use it, NOBODY can?
It’s time for the shooting to start. Paintballs to mark the morons who make these decisions and file these suits.
WooHoo! Scratch 'n sniff porn!
That's the great thing about socialism! It spreads the misery around................
Where the letters and numbers ..... white?
Does every textbook, journal article or other material used in those universities have the ADA version that is accessible to the disabled?
No, I meant medusa. (Anything the government looks at immediately turns to stone)
Were the letters and numbers ..... white?
Um, can blind people read regular books?
Our government is an ugly blend of relentlessly stupid and hopelessly embarrassing.
I think you are right. They won't let people use any reader until they are colored.
So how does traditional textbooks help the blind?
************
Having dealt with the issue, they don’t.
Kindles, and similar products ont he other hand, actually DO help, as the type size can be adjusted. Not all visual impairment means total blindness, which requires other systems.
No one is as stupid as these people act. Their actions proceed from perverse hearts. Damn them all.
Let’s see. According to the Government, “If blind students cannot use them, then no one can.”
This means that next week automobiles will be banned from all campuses in the USA.
The following week, all signs will be taken down, because some students, tragically, cannot read them.
Also, lap top computers, cell phones with texting abilities, and anything else that requires visual acuity.
This is what you get when bureaucrats spend their time in a desperate attempt to justify their unearned salaries.
I had in mind that we should line them up against a wall and shoot them, but that would be a waste of a perfectly good bullet. I like your idea better. You can use a guillotine over and over. ;-)
No more complicated than that.
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.