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<h3><b>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE</b></h3><b>CONTACT:<br><br>
</b> Chris
Danielsen
<br><br>
Director of Public
Relations
<br><br>
National Federation of the
Blind
<br><br>
(410) 659-9314, ext. 2330 <br><br>
(410) 262-1281 (Cell)<br>
<a href="mailto:cdanielsen@nfb.org">cdanielsen@nfb.org</a><br><br>
<br>
<div align="center"><h2><b>Reading Rights Coalition to <br>
Participate in LA Times Festival of Books<br><br>
<br>
Readers with Print Disabilities Will Urge Authors<br>
to Allow Everyone Access to E-books</b></h2></div>
<br><br>
<b>Los Angeles, California (April 21, 2009):</b> The Reading Rights
Coalition will participate in the LA Times Festival of Books to educate
authors about the need to enable text-to-speech for books available for
Amazon’s Kindle 2 reading device. The LA Times Festival of Books
will take place April 25–26 at the University of California at Los
Angeles and the Reading Rights Coalition will be in booth #207 located in
zone B. The coalition includes the blind, people with dyslexia,
people with learning or processing issues, seniors losing vision, people
with spinal cord injuries, people recovering from strokes, and many
others for whom the addition of text-to-speech on the Kindle 2 promises
for the first time easy, mainstream access to over 260,000
books.<br><br>
<br><br>
Deborah Kent, who is blind and has written over one hundred books for
children and young adults, said: “As both a blind person and a writer, I
understand the importance of access to books for people of all ages and
using all kinds of reading methods. The inclusion of text-to-speech
in e-books for the Kindle 2 will help many young people with print
disabilities to gain access to books, thereby ensuring that they will
receive an equal education.”<br><br>
<br><br>
Randy Shaw, who will be speaking at the Book Festival about his new book,
<i>Beyond the Fields: Cesar Chavez, the UFW, and the Struggle for
Justice in the 21st Century</i> and is the author of <i>The Activist’s
Handbook</i>, said: “As a writer, I see e-books not as a potential threat
to my rights but as a way for my work to reach a broader market.
Readers who have never purchased books before because they were
inaccessible will now join the book-buying public, increasing the revenue
and reach of writers on every subject and in every literary genre.”
<br><br>
<br><br>
Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the National Federation of the Blind, said:
“The issue of text-to-speech in e-books for the Kindle 2 is not one of
copyrights but of civil rights. The Reading Rights Coalition stands
for the principle that when an individual has lawfully purchased an
e-book, he or she should be able to read it in whatever medium is most
suitable for him or her. This principle advances the work of
writers rather than taking rights away from them, and it allows people
for whom reading was either an impossibility or a chore to join the
mainstream of society. We hope to persuade our friends in the
literary community that it is in their best interest to make their books
available with text-to-speech, but in any event we will not stop our
campaign until everyone has access to e-books.”<br><br>
<br><br>
For more information about the Reading Rights Coalition, please visit
<a href="http://www.readingrights.org/">www.readingrights.org</a>.
To sign our petition, go to
<a href="http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/We-Want-To-Read">
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/We-Want-To-Read</a>. If you are an
author who supports our cause, please send your contact information to
<a href="mailto:readingrights@nfb.org">readingrights@nfb.org</a>.<br><br>
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