[blindlaw] Fw: Reading Rights Coalition Urges Authorsto AllowEveryone Access to E-books

[T. Joseph Carter]

Text-to-speech is clumsy at best, even when access technology is 
present, unless you are dealing with content specifically designed 
for text-to-speech.  The complexity of the screen reader is not so 
much in getting it to tell you what text is drawn on the screen, but 
rather to intelligently determine what text to say, when to say it, 
and how.  Is "sep" to indicate September or separator, or is it just 
a nonsense word or a typo?  This is the easiest sort of problem a 
screen reader has to figure out.

What you have in the case of the Kindle is a device whose firmware 
could--and would, with some coaxing from organizations like the 
NFB--be made to be useful by blind and sighted people alike.  It is 
universal design, available to all.  Using a talking Kindle, a blind 
person is, for all intents and purposes, the same as a sighted 
person.  One who is dyslexic has the same access to the printed word 
as any bookworm.  The device is a commodity product, the content is 
ready to be read by the eye or the TTS engine, and you can just pick 
it up and go.

When I have the means to participate in society in the same way as my 
sighted peers by reading the same books, using the same methods, 
available to me at the same time and for the same price, I know it is 
respectable to be blind.  I know this because to be blind is then 
clearly no different than to be sighted.  That changes if I have to 
beg Amazon to consider me crippled enough to need to be allowed to 
have my books read to me, as a special concession to my pitiful state 
of just not having enough vision to read even the largest font size 
for a long period of time.  Please Amazon, approve my request?  Take 
pity on me, please?

It truly is a matter of dignity.  Is the accommodation obvious and 
available to anyone who needs it without justification necessary?  Or 
is it something unreasonable that is provided only to those who truly 
need it, if they can prove their need outweighs the cost of allowing 
them special treatment?

The Author's Guild seems to believe the latter.

Joseph

On Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 08:34:47AM -0400, Jack Chen wrote:
> How would the problem be stated best?  Is it an issue with having to  
> register at all or is it a problem with the perception that such a  
> registration list would label individuals as disabled?  My apologies if 
> my basic question offends anyone -- I'm just trying to understand the 
> problem better.
>
> jack
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "T. Joseph Carter" 
> <carter.tjoseph at gmail.com>
> To: "NFBnet Blind Law Mailing List" <blindlaw at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, March 31, 2009 7:56 AM
> Subject: Re: [blindlaw] Fw: Reading Rights Coalition Urges Authorsto  
> AllowEveryone Access to E-books
>
>
>> I think it's time we educate them.  How do I wish I were in the 
>> area--I'd LOVE to be there.
>>
>> Joseph
>>
>> On Mon, Mar 30, 2009 at 09:12:57PM -0400, Chris Danielsen wrote:
>>> The NFB has communicated directly with the Authors Guild. They have 
>>> told us
>>> that they are willing for the TTS to be turned on for the disabled and no
>>> one else if there is a national registry of those with print disabilities.
>>> When we told them that this is unacceptable, they suggested that those who
>>> want to have books read aloud should pay a surcharge.
>>>
>>> Chris
>>
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