[nfbwatlk] FW: Template letters to Amazon's Jeff Bezos

[Mike Freeman]

-----Original Message-----
From: Chapter-presidents [mailto:chapter-presidents-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of cdanielsen8 at aol.com
Sent: Tuesday, November 20, 2012 2:14 PM
To: chapter-presidents at nfbnet.org
Subject: [Chapter-presidents] Template letters to Amazon's Jeff Bezos

Hello everyone:

As you know, we are asking members and supporters to write letters to Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com, insisting that he make Kindle content accessible in light of the fact that Amazon is aggressively pushing Kindle books to schools. Some of you have asked for template letters that you can use to help write letters of your own. Attached and pasted below are two template letters, one from a child and one from a parent, teacher, or other interested adult. Please encourage your members to personalize these letters and send them to us. (Please send them to the NFb, even though they are pre-addressed to Amazon. Our plan is to "deliver" the letters during our protest set for December 12, 2012.) Please print the letters and send them to my attention at National Federation of the Blind, 200 East Wells Street at Jernigan Place, Baltimore MD 21230. You may send the letters in print, Braille, or both. If you cannot send physical letters, please e-mail letters to me at cdanielsen at nfb.org and we will print and emboss the letters for you. Please stay tuned to all NFB e-mail lists, since we will be putting out more materials on this topic. Thanks as always. 
Together we will win this battle and gain access to Kindle books for blind children.

Sincerely:

Chris Danielsen
Director of Public Relations
NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND

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’t 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

Mr. Jeff Bezos
Amazon.com, Inc.
410 Terry Avenue North
Seattle, Washington 98109
Dear Mr. Bezos:
My name is xx.  I am in the xx grade and attend xx school.  I am writing to you to ask that you please make your Kindle books accessible to me.  I need to have access to the same books and textbooks that my classmates are using so that I can do my assignments and keep up with my classmates.  I know that you can make this happen.  If you do, I’ll get the same education as all of my friends.  If you don’t, I won’t get the same education, won’t learn to read properly, and won’t have the same opportunities as my sighted friends.  Please make Kindle content accessible to me as soon as possible.
Sincerely,
xx





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