[nfbmi-talk] Fwd: [Nfbnet-members-list] FW: MEDIA ADVISORY: Blind Americans to Protest Proposed Amazon Deal with New York City Schools

[Kane Brolin]

I know this is New York; but it's probably a leading indicator of
things to come re school systems and related e-books.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Kuhnke, Kristian via Nfbnet-members-list"
<nfbnet-members-list at nfbnet.org>
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 2015 10:21:02 -0500
Subject: [Nfbnet-members-list] FW: MEDIA ADVISORY: Blind Americans to
Protest Proposed Amazon Deal with New York City Schools
To: nfbnet-members-list at nfbnet.org


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:
Chris Danielsen
Director of Public Relations
National Federation of the Blind
(410) 659-9314, extension 2330
(410) 262-1281 (Cell)
<mailto:cdanielsen at nfb.org>cdanielsen at nfb.org





MEDIA ADVISORY




Blind Americans to Protest Proposed Amazon Deal with New York City Schools
Deal Will Discriminate Against Blind Students


Date:               August 26, 2015

Time:              4:30–6:00 p.m.

Place:             M.S. 131
100 Hester Street
New York, NY 10002


On Wednesday, August 26, members of
<http://www.nfb.org>the National Federation of
the Blind will participate in a protest outside
M.S. 131 in New York City, where the city school
system’s Educational Policy Panel will meet later
that evening to consider a proposed $30 million
contract under which Amazon, Inc. would construct
an electronic storefront for New York City
schools and become the primary provider of
electronic textbooks and related educational
materials for students. Because Amazon’s e-books
are not fully accessible to the blind, the
protest will inform the Educational Policy Panel
and the public that the deal would be an act of
deliberate discrimination against blind students
and faculty and a violation of federal law. Those
participating in the protest will enter the
formal meeting at 6:00 p.m., where blind
students, teachers, and others will testify as to
the inaccessibility of the Amazon products and
the discriminatory effects the use of these
products will have on blind students and faculty if the deal is approved.

For more information about this issue, please
visit
<https://nfb.org/blog/vonb-blog/we-must-stop-amazon-fail>https://nfb.org/blog/vonb-blog/we-must-stop-amazon-fail.
To request interviews and/or demonstrations of
how Amazon’s technology fails blind students,
please contact Chris Danielsen at (410) 262-1281
or <mailto:cdanielsen at nfb.org>cdanielsen at nfb.org.


###



About the National Federation of the Blind



The National Federation of the Blind knows that
blindness is not the characteristic that defines
you or your future. Every day we raise the
expectations of blind people, because low
expectations create obstacles between blind
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want; blindness is not what holds you back.