[Youth-outreach] Reading Rights Coalition

[Zakhnini, Karen]

The Reading Rights Coalition, which represents people who cannot read
print, will protest the threatened removal of the text-to-speech
function from e-books for the Amazon Kindle 2 outside the Authors Guild
headquarters in New York City at 31 East 32nd Street on April 7, 2009,
from noon to 2:00 p.m. The 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 promised for the first time easy, mainstream access to over
245,000 books.

When Amazon released the Kindle 2 electronic book reader 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 authors and
publishers the ability to disable the text-to-speech function on any or
all of their e-books available for the Kindle 2. 

While the Kindle 2 is not currently accessible to blind users, Amazon
recently announced on its Kindle 2 blog that it is currently at work on
making the device's navigational features accessible to the blind. 

Please sign the online petition and spread the word about the
discrimination of the Author's Guild:
http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=75465378342&h=8sB2E&u=G6Bkw&re
f=nf
<http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=75465378342&h=8sB2E&u=G6Bkw&r
ef=nf> 

The coalition includes: American Association of People with
Disabilities, American Council of the Blind, American Foundation for the
Blind, Association on Higher Education and Disability, Bazelon Center
for Mental Health Law, Burton Blatt Institute, Digital Accessible
Information System (DAISY) Consortium, Disability Rights Education and
Defense Fund (DREDF), IDEAL Group, Inc., International Center for
Disability Resources on the Internet, International Dyslexia
Association, International Dyslexia Association--New York Branch,
Knowledge Ecology International, Learning Disabilities Association of
America, National Center for Learning Disabilities, National Disability
Rights Network, National Federation of the Blind, NISH, and the National
Spinal Cord Injury Association. In addition to the April 7 New York City
protest, the coalition will participate in the Los Angeles Times
Festival of Books on April 25-26. 

Sincerely,
Karen C. Zakhnini
Education Project Manager
Jernigan Institute
NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND

Phone: (410) 659-9314, ext. 2293

Fax: (410) 659-5129

Support Braille literacy and empowering programs by sponsoring me in the
Motor City March for Independence! Visit
http://www.marchforindependence.org/site/TR/walk/General?px=1003222&pg=p
ersonal&fr_id=1050
<http://www.marchforindependence.org/site/TR/walk/General?px=1003222&pg=
personal&fr_id=1050>