[Nfbmt] Fwd: [Chapter-presidents] Corrected amazon letter template

[Dan Burke]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: cdanielsen8 at aol.com
Date: Wed, 21 Nov 2012 08:35:12 -0500 (EST)
Subject: [Chapter-presidents] Corrected amazon letter template
To: chapter-presidents at nfbnet.org

Hello everyone;

Following my e-mail yesterday, an error in the "parent" template letter
was called to my attention. The corrected letter is below and attached.

Chris

Mr. Jeff Bezos
Amazon.com, Inc.
410 Terry Avenue North
Seattle, Washington 98109
Dear Mr. Bezos:
I have become aware that Amazon.com is undertaking a massive effort to
deploy its Kindle e-readers and Kindle books to K-12 schools across the
United States.  Amazon has built a system called Whispercast that
allows teachers and school administrators to distribute Kindle content
to devices other than Kindles.  The problem with all of these plans is
that neither the Kindle devices nor the book files used in conjunction
with them are accessible to students who are blind or who have other
print disabilities.  Even if a student has an accessible device like a
personal computer, laptop, or iPad, he or she still will not be able to
gain full access to these books.  Although the books can be read aloud
with text-to-speech, the student can’t use the access features of his
or her device to learn proper spelling and punctuation, look up words
in the dictionary, annotate or highlight significant passages, or take
advantage of the many other features that Kindle devices and
applications make available to sighted students.  This is because
Kindle books are designed so that the text is not exposed to
screenreaders, like JAWS for Windows or Apple’s VoiceOver application,
which are used by blind students.  This also means that the text of
Kindle books can’t be displayed on Braille devices.  Listening is not
reading; if students who can read Braille cannot access Kindle books in
Braille, they are not reading.
Since school districts have an obligation under federal law to purchase
or deploy only accessible technology and content, Amazon must either
make Kindle books accessible or cease and desist from its efforts to
have them used in the classroom.  I sincerely hope that you will make
the vast library of Kindle books available to all students, including
those who are blind.  If you do, you will be making history by
providing more access to books for blind students than they have ever
had in all of human history.
Sincerely,
xx








-- 
Dan Burke, President
The National Federation of the Blind of Montana

Visit us on Face Book at http://bit.ly/nfbmtfb
My Cell:  406.546.8546
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