[nfb-talk] kindle debate

[qubit]

You know, I consider this one like the issue of automated teller machines --  
we should go upstream to the manufacturers of the machines rather than the 
grocery stores and banks that have ATM's on their premises.  How did the nfb 
handle that one? Seems it was effective.
And suing aol because of its inaccessibility was done rather than going 
after their customer base -- all the businesses that used their services, 
etc.
It is only slightly different with the kindle.
The schools are mostly funded by the government are they not? I really am 
not up to date on the current laws regarding access in educational 
institutions.
The publicity and volume of sales lost by having the nfb go after schools is 
certainly putting pressure on amazon to fix the kindle -- and didn't they 
announce they are putting accessible menus in their next release?
And that being done, there is still the problem with the author's guild 
blocking some content from being made audible.
Just some musings.
What do you think?
--le


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John G. Heim" <jheim at math.wisc.edu>
To: "NFB Talk Mailing List" <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, January 15, 2010 10:58 AM
Subject: [nfb-talk] kindle debate


Last night I was out with a friend of mine and he happened to mention the
NFB lawsuit  against Arizona State University. He was kind of busting my
chops about blind people trying to drag everyone down because they can't use
the kindle.  I said that we are all in this together and that if blind
students are left behind, it hurts us all. And he agreed with that.  But
where things fell apart was when he then said that insetad of trying to keep
the kindle out of the hands of sighted students, blind people should have
tried to get Amazon to make the kindle accessible. It would be like if blind
people tried to keep anyone from driving a car because they can't drive.

So what I need to prove to him is that Amazon could make the kindle
accessible and chose not to. They had to be pressured into it by a lawsuit
against ASU or they'd have never made it accessible. If I can provide
evidence that companies typically won't lift a finger to make their products
accessible unless they are forced to, that would do the trick.

Anybody know of examples like that? My idea is to bombard my buddy with
examples of companies that scoffed at accessibility until they were forced
to pay attention to it.




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