[blindkid] NFB Joins Coalition to Support E-book Reading Rights

[Denise Colton]

Dear Friends and Fellow Parents of Blind Children,

In February I purchased a Kindle 2 online because I was very excited about the access to many new e-books it would potentially offer my blind daughter with it's new text-to speech function.  We received the device in March and my daughter loves it.  It's not perfect in that she needs sighted assistance to purchase the books, but Amazon is working on making the device more accessible.  

At a cost of about $350, it's relatively cheap compared to other technology available for the blind.  Unfortunately,  we learned shortly after this purchase that authors and publishers want to limit or disable the text-to-speech or perhaps charge more for it per book downloaded. 

The NFB along with many other organizations that support reading for print disabled individuals have joined to form a coalition called "The Reading Rights Coalition".   The website is www.readingrights.org .  I would encourage you to learn more about the issue on the website, consider signing the petition available and perhaps writing to the the Authors Guild as we have to urge continued unfettered access to e-books via text-to-speech. Nation wide protests are also being planned.

I have attached copied of the letters my daughter and I sent out today.

Kind regards,

Denise Colton
NOPBC Board Member
Utah Parents of Blind Children- Vice-President
Park City, UT
dlcolton at parkcity.net 




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