[Iabs-talk] [Fwd: Accessible e-book readers issues]

[Nowicki, Michal Jerzy]

Hello list members,

Below, please find the most discriminatory petition I have ever
encountered in my life.  There apparently is a way to comment on this
petition, but the electronic filing system does not seem to work.  At any
rate, please don't allow Amazon, Kobo, and Sony to succeed in this
endeavor.

Michal Nowicki

---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: Accessible e-book readers issues
From:    "Price, Kevin" <pricek at UIC.EDU>
Date:    Thu, August 8, 2013 4:29 pm
To:      DRCNETWORK at LISTSERV.UIC.EDU
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Students,
Here is some news you may be interested concerning accessible e-book readers.
Kevin

Amazon, Kobo and Sony are petitioning the Federal Communications
Commission to permanently exempt e-readers from certain federal
accessibility laws for the disabled, arguing that e-readers are barebones
devices designed for a single purpose: reading text.

The petition is interesting because it argues that e-readers' value lies
in the fact that they are inherently limited devices and that any
non-reading functions they include, like experimental web browsers, are
"rudimentary" and not very useful. Amazon, Kobo and Sony say that if they
were forced to comply with FCC regulations and make e-readers fully
accessible to people with disabilities, the essential nature of the
devices would change, making them more like tablets, more expensive and,
overall, less useful for their express purpose.

The FCC is accepting comments on the petition through September 3.

http://gigaom.com/2013/08/07/amazon-kobo-and-sony-petition-fcc-to-exempt-e-readers-from-accessibility-laws/


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