[Blindtlk] Fwd: National Federation of the Blind Commends Amazon on Unveiling of New Accessible Kindle

[David Andrews]

>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
>
>
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>CONTACT:
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>Chris Danielsen
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>Director of Public Relations
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>National Federation of the Blind
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>(410) 659-9314, extension 2330
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>(410) 262-1281 (Cell)
>
><mailto:cdanielsen at nfb.org>cdanielsen at nfb.org
>
>
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>National Federation of the Blind Commends Amazon
>  on Unveiling of New Accessible Kindle
>
>
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>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.
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>
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>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."
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>
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>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.
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>For more information on the National Federation of the Blind, please 
>visit <http://www.nfb.org/>www.nfb.org.
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>###
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>About the National Federation of the Blind
>
>With more than 50,000 members, the National Federation of the Blind 
>is the largest and most influential membership organization of blind 
>people in the United States.  The NFB improves blind people's lives 
>through advocacy, education, research, technology, and programs 
>encouraging independence and self-confidence.  It is the leading 
>force in the blindness field today and the voice of the nation's 
>blind.  In January 2004 the NFB opened the National Federation of 
>the Blind Jernigan Institute, the first research and training center 
>in the United States for the blind led by the blind.

         David Andrews and long white cane Harry, dandrews at visi.com
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