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US DOJ Says Kindle In Classroom Hurts Blind Students

Posted by timothy on from the harrison-bergeron-please-report-to-the-front-office dept.

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."

7 of 492 comments (clear)

  1. Amazon should love this precedent by Phat_Tony · · Score: 4, Interesting

    So, all Amazon needs to do is add a text-to-speech feature, and then they can sue any school that tries to use paper books instead of the Kindle, because compared to a text-to-speech Kindle, paper devices discriminate against students with vision problems.

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  2. your highest achievable standard.,.. by gandhi_2 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ...is the capability of the lowest common denominator.

    Braille doesn't provide much access to those with no arms.

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  3. Re:Hmm, this seems illogical. by Simulant · · Score: 4, Interesting

    RTFA, there's no speech to UI control on a Kindle. They can't navigate the software or e-books even if the Kindle can read it to them. Regular books are available in braille.

  4. Re:Hmm, this seems illogical. by Planesdragon · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Well, books can be typed in braille, the kindle cannot... The issue might be that with a kindle, the e-books are very accessible compared to your standard book (probably cheaper?). Maybe the organization thinks it's an unfair advantage?

    1: Sure e-books can be put into "braille". There are even a plethora of devices that'll do it, or just read teh darn thing aloud.

    2: Braille books are EXPENSIVE. They have a far smaller audience, need thicker paper, usually can use only one side of the paper... and can't be printed out on the same equipment as everyone else's books.

    Given those two, the association at play should demand GREATER adoption of e-books -- it's a printed book that the blind cannot read, not a properly formatted e-book

  5. Re:Take away everyones eyes! by gurps_npc · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Wow, so full of hate. You see there are these things called BRAILLE TEXTBOOKS. But when the school starts pushing kindle (with real cost savings for sighted people), and at the same time refuses to use a DIFFERENT READER that has TEXT TO VOICE, then YES the blind people got a case. This is not about the school offering an ebook reader. It is about the school PUSHING an ebook reader that does NOT have the same capacities that other existing ebook readers do have. Yeah, I know you are full of your self and insisting that other people MUST be suing for no reasons. But if you had a brain you would realize that sometimes law suits are actually about real discrimination. Like this one.

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  6. Re:Ebooks not the problem, kindle navigation is by Cyberllama · · Score: 4, Interesting

    But yet the fact remains it is currently *more* accessible to the disabled than a regular textbook. So let's not have an improvement because we should hold out for an even better improvement?

  7. Re:Hmm, this seems illogical. by the_humeister · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Harrison Bergeron's world, are we there yet?