Universities reject Kindle over inaccessibility for the blind
The National Federation of the Blind is applauding the decisions of Syracuse University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison not to Amazon.com's Kindle DX as a textbook replacement.
Kindle DX
(Credit: Amazon)The universities cited the Kindle's inaccessibility to the blind as the problem.
The federation said Wednesday that while it appreciates the Kindle's text-to-speech feature, the "menus of the device are not accessible to the blind...making it impossible for a blind user to purchase books from Amazon's Kindle store, select a book to read, activate the text-to-speech feature, and use the advanced reading functions available on the Kindle DX."
For its part, Amazon believes in the Kindle's potential. An Amazon spokesperson wrote in an e-mail that "With a few modifications, Kindle has the potential to be a true breakthrough product for the blind, and we're already working on it. We're excited about it."
According to the federation, the University of Wisconsin-Madison experimented with the Kindle in upper-level history classes.
"The big disappointment was learning that the Kindle DX is not accessible to the blind," Ken Frazier, the University of Wisconsin-Madison director of libraries, said in a statement. "Advancements in text-to-speech technology have created a market opportunity for an e-book reading device that is fully accessible for everyone. This version of the Kindle e-book reader missed the mark."
Frazier added that a suitable device would include better "accessibility, higher-quality graphics, and improved navigation and note-taking. I think that there will be a huge payoff for the company that creates a truly universal e-book reader."
Pamela McLaughlin, director of communications and external relations at Syracuse University, said in a statement that her school bought two Kindle DX units to see if it could replace hardcover textbooks and course materials.
Although students are still evaluating the devices, she said, the university has "no plans to purchase any more of these units in light of the fact that they are inaccessible to blind students. If Syracuse University decides to use e-book technology on campus, we will require technology that can be used by all of our students, including those who are blind."
Marc Maurer, president of the National Federation of the Blind, said his organization commends the universities' rejections of "broad deployment of the Kindle DX in its current form because it cannot be used by blind students and therefore denies the blind equal access to electronic textbooks."
Mauer pointed out that the federation does not oppose electronic textbooks and believes that "they hold great promise for blind students if they are accessible."
Updated at 10:14 a.m. PST to include Amazon comments.
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Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has written about everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Don is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and posts at The Digital Home. He is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
It would seem that what they really should have done is issue that standards they want a reader to meet rather than ban the ones they don't like.
The National Federation for the Blind should have had an internal discussion on the potential of readers and what they needed to be within a very short time of the introduction of the first eReader. By now those standards should be fairly well polished.
There is a new Microsoft device available now that will take a picture of any text and talk it back to you. I would suppose you can upload text to it as well. However, making these devices mandatory to all students just because they are accessible to the blind would also be pretty stupid.
If I were the university, I would have rejected the Kindle on the grounds that is can only get media from Amazon. If they select an ebook reader, it should be able to get content from anywhere and not be locked into one provider.
Seriously, people! Blind people already have to use specialized devices for these purposes, separate from the kinds their seeing classmates use. Why not advocate a device like this for your textbooks? If publishers could pull their heads out and pass along the savings of not having to warehouse, ship, and inventory paper books, not to mention print excess copies or create delays when demand is higher than perceived, then eBooks and eTextbooks could be as affordable as paperbacks used to be (before the standardized dimension change).
Blind people already have to use brail versions of pdf versions on a computer, so why not open that door to students and sell an option for PDF versions one can read on their computer? Make it searchable, and studying becomes much easier and faster.
Sadly, you won't be seeing even encrypted versions of PDFs for a while thanks to publishers' fears of piracy. As of now, piracy is held in check not by DRM, but by paper media. Once OCR software improves, though, i'm betting it won't be long before a student with a cheap feed scanner and a hot plate gets smart and starts selling their own PDFs of entire textbooks.
"Frazier added that a suitable device would include better 'accessibility, higher-quality graphics...' "
No offense, but how would higher-quality graphics make the Kindle more suitable for blind people?
The decision was immediately condemned by the Society for the deaf, because they could not hear it. The National Federation of the Blind responded by banning sign language, as it is not blind-friendly.
The Association of Mutes had no comment.
Nicely put. +20
Exactly my sentiments. You put it well. Kudos!
Choices are good they lead to innovation and competition, as well as consumer happiness.
Daily Show, are you listening?
G4 Attack of the show?
Voig, well done and well said.
Not everyone thinks an ebook reader is an acceptable method for working with textbooks.
Having already earned an MBA and now in law school, people have a real misunderstanding of two driving factors.
1) costs won't drop to make a difference to a student. textbooks are not sold in the volume that other books at your local Barnes and Noble are sold. authors get very high rates per book sold.
2) I, like most people I know, wouldn't want to use an ebook reader. The inability to mark up your texts, having multiple books at once to crosscompare, etc., make an ereader unsuitable. At least with most electronic access sites, i can print out what I need (example: Lexis/Nexis)
For the blind, there are isses that most of us don't face. But paper texts in braille do exist! Ereaders aren't going to solve this.
Nook is powered by Android. Android is built for application development, Kindle? not so much. Don Reisinger, maybe you should go explore THAT story.
These schools have NDA agreements and will offer electronic options, just not the Kindle!
Maybe!?.
It may seem like the NFB is trying to stifle innovation but in reality the disability community is excited about the possibiliities technology offers to make their lives easier, and instead what we're seeing is unthoughtful product design by organizations like Amazon (and Barnes and Noble for that matter). Technology products should be built with the idea of universal design, just like like any door knob in a modern commercial building. Notice how door knobs are no longer round in commercial institutions (they are now handles to make them easier to use for the physically handicapped). This universal design concept has been translated into almost all non technology products and is finally now being used by *little* tech companies like Apple and Microsoft (Mac OS and Windows 7). Amazon and other tech companies should take note of what the big boys are doing in terms of universal design and follow suit. If they don't their products will never be widely accepted in academia.
The transferring of traditional books into electronic format will not preclude their being made available in these disability-friendly formats, so there is no conflict with the law whatsoever.
This is an arbitrary and pointless decision that removes what could be a very useful technology for the overwhelming majority of people in order to placate a very small number of unfortunate people who are not harmed in any way, shape or form by it. If the eBooks somehow contained information NOT available to the blind, then I would be behind the decision 100%. Or if the eBooks sought out and executed blind people. That would be another good reason to ban them.
But disallowing them because a blind person cannot see them is penalizing an overwhelming majority for being blessedly unimpeded, and in short, isn't remotely fair.
The current lawsuit against ASU and other universities for piloting the Kindle may disagree with you, depending on how the case is ruled. What the disability community is advocating for in that lawsuit is equal access to not only information, but to the tools used to convey that information. Decision still pending.
My guess is that the case will be laughed out of court and universities will be clear to adopt these platforms, but until that happens Universities are smart to ere on the side of caution and avoid potentially expensive litigation. The decision by universities to hold off is therefore not pointless.
I agree with you though, eBooks could be a very useful technology to everybody, even those with disabilities if the platforms are designed correctly.
But I'm not a lawyer and might be misreading it.
Either way, it's an inane argument from them. If they have the info, who cares where it comes from?
I do agree this should have been optional technology and there being a equal requirement to use, is definitely a stretch especially since the same content is available via other accessible means.
I do agree the Kindle should be upgraded to better allow other functionality, BUT a second version may need to be created to address the issues. Accessibiity does not inherently improve usability and as such to meet the Federation's requirements may make a device less usable for the majority. Not sure that is a good thing.
For the most part, if you make things usable for the disabled it does not hurt the rest of us. Using Kindle as an example, they could simply add a "read out loud" button somewhere on the device with little braille instructions (or something... I'm not a UI designer)
- by gggg sssss November 13, 2009 5:36 PM PST
- proving once again that we let the most incompetent among us teach. I suppose that they will next ban textbooks because they are also not accessible.
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