US DOJ Says Kindle In Classroom Hurts Blind Students

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."

Comments

Hmm, this seems illogical.

[tivoKlr]

How does the kindle discriminate against the blind any more than, say, A BOOK?

Re:Hmm, this seems illogical.

[Anonymous Coward]

As a partially sighted person[1] I'm trying to figure this out...hang on...um...uh..nearly there...uh...no.

Nope sorry, no idea. Still I'm sure The National Federation of the Blind and the American Council of the Blind are patting themselves on the back for holding back the majority of students while in no way impacting any partially sighted or blind student in any way what-so-ever. Good for them!

[1]: I have partial sight in my right eye due to several holes in my retina, one of which is directly in the center of my vision.

Re:Hmm, this seems illogical.

[Soilworker]

books company didn't stop releasing books in braille after the kindle release, blind student still can buy them.

How is it a unfair advantage ? I should always wear something that cover my eyes because it's unfair for them if I can see with my two eyes ?

Re:Hmm, this seems illogical.

[iamhassi]

"How does the kindle discriminate against the blind any more than, say, A BOOK?"

Simple: by forcing Amazon to come out with a new device that caters more to their needs, 0.3% of the population (~1 million blind vs 300 million Americans) forces the other 99.7% of the population to pay for all the hardware and software advances required for them to use the device.

Completely fair IMHO

Re:Hmm, this seems illogical.

[maxume]

I have this notion that electronic copies of books might even be more accessible, as there is no need to do any OCR; I guess if the students in question are already used to using some system that isn't compatible...

Re:Hmm, this seems illogical.

[Anonymous Coward]

Same. I don't understand what the fuck these people are thinking. I'm "legally" blind and the Kindle is great because you can set the text size. You can't do that with a book. And for fully blind people, wouldn't it be easier, rather than harder, to pipe digital text to a braille reader?

This (again, as someone who is legally blind) is just stupid people being stupid.

Re:Hmm, this seems illogical.

[davester666]

None of the university e-books have text-to-speech enabled for them, in order to preserve the jobs of human text to speech convertors.

Re:Hmm, this seems illogical.

[mabhatter654]

exactly, see here!

http://news.slashdot.org/story/09/02/28/0127236/Amazon-Caves-On-Kindle-2-Text-To-Speech

The DOJ didn't exactly stick up for Amazon when they enabled text-to-speech by default for all Kindle books.... Now they claim they can't use them because it's "unfair" to blind people.... Blind people can't read EVERY book without help.... kindle make it cheaper for the rest of us to have materials. There are SPECIAL programs and credits to convert material for blind people that schools are supposed to offer... not turn off stuff for the rest of us!!

Re:Hmm, this seems illogical.

[evil_aar0n]

Is there a law that says devices of this sort must have equal access for handicapped users?

I'm deaf. When I go to movies, I get only half of the experience of "normal" viewers because I don't get the dialog. Should I sue the producers and the theater chains because they don't caption movies for me? No. I simply wait until it comes out on DVD and watch it on my TV, with captioning enabled.

It sucks for blind people, in general. Granted, the Kindle doesn't help them. However, they've no business taking it out on the Kindle or universities that find it a useful tool. Adapt. It's what we do.

Re:Hmm, this seems illogical.

[mysidia]

Professors commonly use materials in class that aren't available in braille form.

But this might be because classes are normally small and I never had a blind person in my class in 4 years...

Maybe there aren't that many blind people at public universities, and dumbing down education for everyone just to make things more convenient for a small fraction of the population, is unreasonable?

I can think of a lot of accomadations that are more reasonable than globally restricting the medium that may be used in classrooms.

If the kindle is to be banned on this basis, then this must apply to other eBook readers too, and other electronic media, such as the use of web/internet-based sites as resources.

Sorry folks, all professors with a "class web page" must now turn these off, since blind and quadroplegic folken can't surf the web anyways.

No actual art can be displayed in 'visual arts appreciation class', to ensure blind people have a fair shot at an A.

And... also, no actual music will be allowed in music appreciation class, to ensure equal access by deaf people.

Re:Hmm, this seems illogical.

[MikeFM]

Blind users should sue publishers that disable text to speech. They are the bastards to blame.

Somebody please tell the DOJ

[Vinegar Joe]

That Harrison Bergeron is a warning........not a fucking "how-to" manual.

http://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/harrison.html

Re:Amazon should love this precedent

[m.ducharme]

So, all Amazon needs to do is turn back on the text-to-speech feature...

Lowest Common Denominator mentality

[syousef]

"If you can have it and I can't I'll sue" - Pretty soon kids are lucky to have access to food and clothing, let alone an education. It's a losing strategy compared to say innovating and catering to diversity. Why can't they lobby for an ebook reader that does cater to the blind. Perhaps popup braile? Instead of wasting effort sending all your kids minds back to the stone age. Doesn't have to be a Kindle either. Leave the brand names out of it.

In other news

[ChrisMaple]

There aren't any blind NASCAR drivers.

Shhhhh

[Archangel Michael]

You're talking COMMON SENSE there. If you're not careful, the agents of PC and Government interference will show up and arrest you.

Re:Ebooks not the problem, kindle navigation is

[spun]

No, it isn't more accessible. Without navigation, it is completely inaccessible. But the fix is very easy: tie the user interface into the text-to speech application that already exists on the device. This publicity will ensure that happens in a very timely fashion.