[Nfbf-l] National Federation of the Blind and American Council of the Bli...

[REPCODDS at aol.com]

Tara,
When are you arriving in Detroit?
Dr. Maurer has said we can meet with him. I will call him in Baltimore  
tomorrow.
Dwight
 
 
In a message dated 6/25/2009 9:41:26 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
taraprakash at gmail.com writes:

Here all  the universities need to do is, provide a .txt version of the 
files 
to the  print-disabled. It must have been so much easier than defending in 
the  court. I am not aware of the negotiations that took place between NFB 
and  the University and if there was any discussion about alternate  
formats.

I wonder what response do we have if we are asked in the court  how is this 
situation different from the print book regime. Even the print  books are 
not 
accessible to the blind. They anyway use an alternate  format, why not in 
this case?

Thanks

Tara
----- Original  Message ----- 
From: "Freeh,Jessica (by way of David Andrews  <dandrews at visi.com>)" 
<JFreeh at nfb.org>
To:  <david.andrews at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, June 25, 2009 4:25  PM
Subject: [Nfbf-l] National Federation of the Blind and American Council  of 
the Blind File Discrimination Suit Against Arizona State  University




FOR IMMEDIATE  RELEASE


CONTACT:

Chris Danielsen

Director of Public  Relations

National Federation of the Blind

(410) 659-9314,  extension 2330

(410) 262-1281  (Cell)

cdanielsen at nfb.org





National Federation of  the Blind and American Council of the Blind
File Discrimination Suit  Against Arizona State University





University's Amazon  Kindle DX Pilot Program Discriminates Against the Blind

Baltimore,  Maryland (June 25, 2009): 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.



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."



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."





###





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