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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."
I don't see how this post is a troll and I think its actually quite insightful myself. Whenever you have government involved in education, it generally fails. Look at public schools for one example. Public universities usually aren't too bad because they don't get 100% of their funding from the state and have to be decent or no one will go to them and they close.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
There were some pretty epic facepalms in all of 2009, but I think THIS one trumps all of them. Off to a good start in 2010 I see.
Who are these "The National Federation of the Blind and the American Council of the Blind"?
We have the CNIB (Canadian National Institute For The Blind) but they mostly just do fundraising to help research things like Optical implants (which they have successfuly created, I might add). Can just anyone start an minority interest group and complain to the government?
And I think the DOJ should be impeached for doing this. This is worse then "Crabs in a Bucket" mentality. I mean, anything that was designed to be looked at is essentially "Discriminating against the blind". Movies, Books, Watches, Make up, stylish clothing, traffic ilghts, etc. Is the DOJ saying that all of the United States should impair itself to accomodate the blind? What about Parapalegics? Should they get their arms and legs amputated? And the mute? Sew the mouth shut.
I'm sure the answer to the economic recession is to make as many US Citizens as useless as possible.
Imagine what could be gained by giving Kindles to MORE universities instead of less.
We need to outlaw all colleges, as they require a certain level of grades and use SAT scores as admission criterea, which discriminates against people with low IQs known as learning disabled! At the very least we should outlaw the blackboard, which clealry is in violation of the same core principle of equal access to the blind. Holy shit these people are morons!
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
So, this is about politics (as usual) than anything else.
I've got a beef against Kindle in particular, but nothing to do with "accessibility". Amazon has the power to delete content from your Kindle at will, and have done so. I don't like that and therefore I refuse to use the device myself.
But if others are OK with Amazon having that kind of power over their content, more power to them.
That issue aside, I'd much rather have all of my books in electronic format -- much lighter, can carry far more, and they can get updated if information in them happens to be incorrect, out of date, etc.
Cannot the blind use special laptops to access the same information? Would seem a simple enough solution. Or maybe it's too simple. Gotta do something far more dramatic, like hold everyone else back. Shame on you for being able to see!!!!
Ruby Neural Evolution of Augmenting Topologies
I tried that. Broke the kindle. Maybe I should have picked a blind person who is less hard headed?
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
They have reserved spots for blind drivers where you live?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."