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<h1><b>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<br><br>
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CONTACT:</b></h1><font face="Garamond">Chris Danielsen<br><br>
Director of Public Relations<br><br>
National Federation of the Blind<br><br>
(410) 659-9314, extension 2330<br><br>
(410) 262-1281 (Cell)<br><br>
cdanielsen@nfb.org<br><br>
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</font><div align="center"><h1><b>National Federation of the Blind and
American Council of the Blind <br>
File Discrimination Suit Against Arizona State University<br><br>
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<h2><b>University’s Amazon Kindle DX Pilot Program Discriminates Against
the Blind</b></h2><font face="Garamond"><b>Baltimore, Maryland (June 25,
2009):</b> The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) and the American
Council of the Blind (ACB) filed suit today 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. Darrell Shandrow, a blind ASU student, is also a named
plaintiff in the action. The Kindle DX features text-to-speech
technology that can read textbooks aloud to blind students. The
menus of the device are 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. In addition
to ASU, five other institutions of higher education are deploying the
Kindle DX as part of a pilot project to assess the role of electronic
textbooks and reading devices in the classroom. The NFB and ACB
have also filed complaints with the Office for Civil Rights of the U.S.
Department of Education and the Civil Rights Division of the U.S.
Department of Justice, asking for investigations of these five
institutions, which are: Case Western Reserve University, the Darden
School of Business at the University of Virginia, Pace University,
Princeton University, and Reed College. The lawsuit and complaints
allege violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the
Rehabilitation Act of 1973. <br><br>
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Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the National Federation of the Blind, said:
“Given the highly-advanced technology involved, there is no good reason
that Amazon’s Kindle DX device should be inaccessible to blind
students. Amazon could have used the same text-to-speech technology
that reads e-books on the device aloud to make its menus accessible to
the blind, but it chose not to do so. Worse yet, six American
higher education institutions that are subject to federal laws requiring
that they not discriminate against students with disabilities plan to
deploy this device, even though they know that it cannot be used by blind
students. The National Federation of the Blind will not tolerate
this unconscionable discrimination against and callous indifference to
the right of blind students to receive an equal education. We hope
that this situation can be rectified in a manner that allows this
exciting new reading technology to be made available to blind and sighted
students alike.”<br><br>
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Darrell Shandrow, a blind student pursuing a degree in journalism at ASU,
said: “Not having access to the advanced reading features of the Kindle
DXincluding the ability to download books and course materials, add my
own bookmarks and notes, and look up supplemental information instantly
on the Internet when I encounter it in my readingwill lock me out of
this new technology and put me and other blind students at a competitive
disadvantage relative to our sighted peers. While my peers will
have instant access to their course materials in electronic form, I will
still have to wait weeks or months for accessible texts to be prepared
for me, and these texts will not provide the access and features
available to other students. That is why I am standing up for
myself and with other blind Americans to end this blatant
discrimination.”<br><br>
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