For more information on the National
Federation of the Blind, please visit
www.nfb.org.
From the US National Federation of the Blind press room:
National Federation of the Blind Commends Amazon on Unveiling of
New Accessible Kindle
Baltimore, Maryland (July 29, 2010): The National Federation of
the Blind (NFB) today commended Amazon on the unveiling of a
new, accessible Kindle. Amazon announced Wednesday that the new
Kindle will come equipped with a voice guide that reads all menu
options aloud so blind and other print-disabled people can
navigate the device menus.
Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the National Federation of the
Blind, said: “We commend Amazon on the unveiling of a new Kindle
that blind and print-disabled people can use. In order to
compete in today’s digital society, blind and print-disabled
people must be able to access the same reading technologies as
the sighted. The National Federation of the Blind has long been
urging Amazon to make its reading device accessible, and we are
pleased that our efforts have come to fruition.”
In June 2009 the National Federation of the Blind and the
American Council of the Blind (ACB) filed suit against Arizona
State University (ASU) to prevent the university from deploying
Amazon’s Kindle DX electronic reading device as a means of
distributing electronic textbooks to its students because the
device cannot be used by blind students. The Kindle DX featured
text-to-speech technology that can read textbooks aloud to blind
students. The menus of the device were not accessible to the
blind, however, 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.
ADA-OHIO (The Americans with Disabilities Act)
700 Morse Road, Suite 220
Columbus, OH 43214
614-844-5410
614-844-5537 FAX
ADA-OHIO is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization supported by
DBTAC - Great Lakes ADA Center and by Community Shares of
Mid-Ohio.
I
