[nfb-talk] kindle debate

[John Heim]

Well, I don't think there is any question that the law is on the side  
of the NFB. That really is good enough for me. But some people aren't  
satisfied with that. And something can be legal but still wrong. I'm  
really interested in convincing my buddy that not only was the NFb  
right legally, they were right morally.

I really believe Amazon would never have made the kindle accessible if  
not for the lawsuit against ASU and Case-Western

I suppose it is probably not realistic to hope to settle this. I  
really think the NFB and ACB did what they had to do even if it was  
kind of unfair to the rest of the students. Certainly, the law is on  
our side. But more than that, it was for the greater good. As I said,  
my buddy doesn't dispute the fact that if blind students are left  
behind, it hurts everyone.

On/∂ Jan 15, 2010, at 1:46 PM, qubit wrote:

> You know, I consider this one like the issue of automated teller  
> machines --
> we should go upstream to the manufacturers of the machines rather  
> than the
> grocery stores and banks that have ATM's on their premises.  How did  
> the nfb
> handle that one? Seems it was effective.
> And suing aol because of its inaccessibility was done rather than  
> going
> after their customer base -- all the businesses that used their  
> services,
> etc.
> It is only slightly different with the kindle.
> The schools are mostly funded by the government are they not? I  
> really am
> not up to date on the current laws regarding access in educational
> institutions.
> The publicity and volume of sales lost by having the nfb go after  
> schools is
> certainly putting pressure on amazon to fix the kindle -- and didn't  
> they
> announce they are putting accessible menus in their next release?
> And that being done, there is still the problem with the author's  
> guild
> blocking some content from being made audible.
> Just some musings.
> What do you think?
> --le
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "John G. Heim" <jheim at math.wisc.edu>
> To: "NFB Talk Mailing List" <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Friday, January 15, 2010 10:58 AM
> Subject: [nfb-talk] kindle debate
>
>
> Last night I was out with a friend of mine and he happened to  
> mention the
> NFB lawsuit  against Arizona State University. He was kind of  
> busting my
> chops about blind people trying to drag everyone down because they  
> can't use
> the kindle.  I said that we are all in this together and that if blind
> students are left behind, it hurts us all. And he agreed with that.   
> But
> where things fell apart was when he then said that insetad of trying  
> to keep
> the kindle out of the hands of sighted students, blind people should  
> have
> tried to get Amazon to make the kindle accessible. It would be like  
> if blind
> people tried to keep anyone from driving a car because they can't  
> drive.
>
> So what I need to prove to him is that Amazon could make the kindle
> accessible and chose not to. They had to be pressured into it by a  
> lawsuit
> against ASU or they'd have never made it accessible. If I can provide
> evidence that companies typically won't lift a finger to make their  
> products
> accessible unless they are forced to, that would do the trick.
>
> Anybody know of examples like that? My idea is to bombard my buddy  
> with
> examples of companies that scoffed at accessibility until they were  
> forced
> to pay attention to it.
>
>
>
>
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