[Perform-talk] Dr. Maurer's Baltimore Sun article on the Kindle

Donna Hill penatwork at epix.net
Wed Apr 15 15:58:20 UTC 2009


The following article appeared in the Baltimore Sun and the Chicago 
Tribune.  I found it at:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/topic/bal-op.blind14apr14,0,2482195.story

Enjoy,
Donna Hill
Bias against blind book lovers

By Marc Maurer  April 14, 2009

 

I love to read, and I've been doing it ever since I was able. My wife is 
also an avid reader. But my wife and I are blind, and because I lead the 
Baltimore-based

National Federation of the Blind, we have many blind friends. And 
although many of us read everything we can get our hands on, we can't 
get our hands on

very much to read.

 

There are services for us, of course. Government entities and nonprofit 
organizations convert books into Braille, audio, or digital form for our 
use. But

only 5 percent of all books published undergo such a conversion. A few 
more are available as commercial audio books, but these are often 
abridged, and

those that are unabridged are quite expensive.

 

Nowadays, a solution to the problem of reading material is tantalizingly 
within our reach: the e-book. When Amazon released its new Kindle 2 
e-book reader

earlier this year, it announced that the device now includes 
text-to-speech software and can read e-books aloud. Those of us who are 
blind were filled

with joy at this news. For the first time in history, it would now be 
possible, we hoped, for the blind to do something that everyone else 
takes for granted:

purchase a brand new book and start reading it right away.

 

Our hope quickly turned to despair, however - and then to anger. The 
Authors Guild doesn't want the Kindle 2 to be able to read books aloud. 
They say this

new capability violates authors' copyrights. This argument has 
absolutely no basis in copyright law. Reading a print book aloud or 
having it read aloud

to you in the privacy of your home is not a copyright violation; the 
only difference with the Kindle 2 is that a machine rather than a human 
being is doing

the reading.

 

In the face of this specious attack from the Authors Guild, Amazon 
initially took the legally and morally correct position that the 
text-to-speech feature

of the Kindle 2 did not violate copyright law. But then the company 
backed down, saying it would allow authors and publishers to decide 
which books they

would permit to be read aloud by the device. Dismayed, we contacted the 
Authors Guild. It claimed it did not oppose having e-books read aloud to 
the blind,

as long as there was a national registry of blind people who would then 
be allowed to unlock the text-to-speech feature.

 

This is wrong. The Authors Guild has no right to discriminate against 
disabled readers by segregating us into a separate and unequal class. If 
our sighted

friends don't have to "sign up" to be permitted to read, then blind 
people shouldn't either. And once we buy a book, how we read it is 
nobody's business

but ours. When we told the Authors Guild this, they added insult to 
injury by telling us that, if we wouldn't sign up for a registry, we 
would just have

to pay extra in order to use text-to-speech. Needless to say, this is 
outrageous and reprehensible behavior from an organization of people who 
claim to

support equal access to literature by all Americans. Instead of 
facilitating the free flow of information, the Authors Guild is making 
itself the arbiter

of who is worthy of access to the printed word.

 

The Authors Guild isn't just discriminating against blind people. People 
with other disabilities - especially brain injuries and conditions like 
dyslexia

- would also benefit from the ability to have books read aloud to them 
electronically. Groups representing many of these people are joining us 
to protest

the position of the Authors Guild and Amazon's craven response to it.

 

At present, very few of us buy books in any form. If we could have 
e-books read aloud to us, however, we would happily pay for them. We are 
an untapped

market consisting of some 15 million people to which authors and 
publishers have never before had direct access. For this reason, the 
position of the Authors

Guild is not only morally repugnant but also bad business. Prohibiting 
the blind and others from reading commercially available e-books just 
means that

authors and publishers won't get our money. The guild's position hurts 
both authors and people with print disabilities.

 

In an age when how we get information is constantly and rapidly 
changing, it's important that people with disabilities have access to it 
in the same way

that it is important for us to have access to physical structures, goods 
and services. Amazon took an important step in the right direction by 
including

a read-aloud feature on the Kindle 2, but the Authors Guild is now 
trying to set us back. We are not going to allow them to stand in the 
doorway of the

virtual bookstore to keep us out.

 

Marc Maurer is president of the National Federation of the Blind. His 
e-mail is

officeofthepresident at nfb.org.

 

-- 
Read my articles on American Chronicle:
http://www.americanchronicle.com/authors/view/3885

For my bio & to hear clips from The Last Straw:
http://cdbaby.com/cd/donnahill

Apple I-Tunes

phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playListId=259244374

Performing Arts Division of the National Federation of the Blind
www.padnfb.org








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