[Mn-parents] FW: Corrected amazon letter template

[Jennifer Dunnam]

-----Original Message-----
From: Chapter-presidents [mailto:chapter-presidents-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of cdanielsen8 at aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, November 21, 2012 7:35 AM
To: chapter-presidents at nfbnet.org
Subject: [Chapter-presidents] Corrected amazon letter template

Hello everyone;

Following my e-mail yesterday, an error in the "parent" template letter was
called to my attention. The corrected letter is below and attached.

Chris

Mr. Jeff Bezos
Amazon.com, Inc.
410 Terry Avenue North
Seattle, Washington 98109
Dear Mr. Bezos:
I have become aware that Amazon.com is undertaking a massive effort to
deploy its Kindle e-readers and Kindle books to K-12 schools across the
United States.  Amazon has built a system called Whispercast that allows
teachers and school administrators to distribute Kindle content to devices
other than Kindles.  The problem with all of these plans is that neither the
Kindle devices nor the book files used in conjunction with them are
accessible to students who are blind or who have other print disabilities.
Even if a student has an accessible device like a personal computer, laptop,
or iPad, he or she still will not be able to gain full access to these
books.  Although the books can be read aloud with text-to-speech, the
student can't use the access features of his or her device to learn proper
spelling and punctuation, look up words in the dictionary, annotate or
highlight significant passages, or take advantage of the many other features
that Kindle devices and applications make available to sighted students.
This is because Kindle books are designed so that the text is not exposed to
screenreaders, like JAWS for Windows or Apple's VoiceOver application, which
are used by blind students.  This also means that the text of Kindle books
can't be displayed on Braille devices.  Listening is not reading; if
students who can read Braille cannot access Kindle books in Braille, they
are not reading.
Since school districts have an obligation under federal law to purchase or
deploy only accessible technology and content, Amazon must either make
Kindle books accessible or cease and desist from its efforts to have them
used in the classroom.  I sincerely hope that you will make the vast library
of Kindle books available to all students, including those who are blind.
If you do, you will be making history by providing more access to books for
blind students than they have ever had in all of human history.
Sincerely,
xx





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