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<br><br>
<br><br>
<br><br>
<h3><b>FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE</b></h3><font face="Garamond"><b> <br><br>
CONTACT:<br><br>
</b><Chris
Danielsen</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times">
<br><br>
</font><font face="Garamond">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>
</font><div align="center"><h2><b>Reading Rights Coalition Denounces
Random House </b></h2></div>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times"> <br><br>
</font><div align="center"><font face="Garamond"><i>Random House Has
Denied 15 Million <br>
Print-Disabled Americans Access to its Books<br><br>
</i></div>
<b> <br><br>
New York City (May 20, 2009):</b> The Reading Rights Coalition,
representing more than 15 million print-disabled Americans, has denounced
publishing giant Random House, which has turned off text-to-speech on all
of its e-books available for Amazon’s Kindle 2 reading
service. <br><br>
<br><br>
Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the National Federation of the Blind, said:
“When Random House turned off the text-to-speech function on all of its
e-books for the Kindle 2, it turned off access to this service for more
than 15 million print-disabled Americans. The blind and other
print-disabled readers have the right to purchase e-books using this
service with text-to-speech enabled. Blocking text-to-speech
prohibits access for print-disabled readers and is both reprehensible and
discriminatory. We urge President Obama, whose e-books are now
being blocked from over 15 million Americans, to either demand that
access be restored or to move to a publisher who does not engage in
discrimination.”<br><br>
<br><br>
Dr. Cynthia Stuen</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times">,
</font><font face="Garamond">Senior Vice President of Policy and
Evaluation for Lighthouse International,
said:</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times">
</font><font face="Garamond">"Having the technology available to
give people with impaired vision and other print disabilities equal and
timely access to the printed word should be celebrated and encouraged in
a civil and just society for all."<br><br>
<br><br>
Andrew Imparato, President and Chief Executive Officer for the American
Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), said: “Random House is
callously disregarding the right of American consumers with disabilities
to get access to the same content at the same price at the same time as
everyone else. Random House’s decision to turn off the feature that
makes this content accessible to millions of print-disabled Americans is
a bad business decision with real human consequences and it must be
corrected immediately.”<br><br>
<br><br>
Mitch Pomerantz, President of the American Council of the Blind, said:
"The recent action by Random House disabling text-to-speech on
e-books is the latest and most egregious discriminatory action against
the nation's 15 million print-disabled individuals. Random House
either doesn't care or doesn't understand the impact this will have on
those who would otherwise have equal access to books and other printed
materials in the same manner as our non-disabled peers. We must
work collaboratively to do everything possible to assure such access for
this growing constituency."<br><br>
<br><br>
James Love, Director of Knowledge Ecology International (KEI), said: “KEI
is disappointed that Random House is turning off text-to-speech on its
Kindle 2 e-books. In a world where access to knowledge is central to
everything, Random House certainly understands this action will isolate
and marginalize many persons with reading disabilities.”<br><br>
<br><br>
K. Eric Larson, Executive Director and CEO of National Spinal Cord Injury
Association, said: "All Americans have the right to equal access and
many people living with paralysis use text-to-speech capabilities in
order to gain that access. Our members are also consumers and
“turning off” text-to-speech means that some will not buy books they
would otherwise purchase." <br><br>
John R. Sheehan, Chairman of the Xavier Society for the Blind, said: “The
Xavier Society for the Blind is committed to the notion that ALL books
should be accessible to all people. When a book about Mother Teresa is
among those whose text-to-speech functions have been disabled, we fear
that we are seeing the beginning of a blanket cut-off of a function that
should be open and available to all, especially (but not exclusively) to
those with visual impairments or other problems that limit access to
printed materials.”<br><br>
When Amazon released the Kindle 2 e-book reading service on February 9,
2009, the company announced that the device would be able to read e-books
aloud using text-to-speech technology. Under pressure from the
Authors Guild, Amazon has announced that it will give publishers the
ability to disable the text-to-speech function on any or all of their
e-books available for the Kindle 2 service. Random House is the
first publisher to turn off text-to-speech on all of its e-books and thus
deny the rights of print-disabled people across America. <br><br>
<br><br>
The Reading Rights 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 270,000
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>
<br><br>
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