[nfb-talk] Fwd: National Federation of the Blind Commends Amazon on Unveiling of New Accessible Kindle

Margo and Arrow margo.downey at verizon.net
Thu Jul 29 18:21:51 UTC 2010


So, we can use the menus but not read the books?  I'm confused because to me 
this is okay but not enough and I'll commend Amazon when they do more.

margo andArrow
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Buddy Brannan" <buddy at brannan.name>
To: "NFB Talk Mailing List" <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, July 29, 2010 1:47 PM
Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] Fwd: National Federation of the Blind Commends 
Amazon on Unveiling of New Accessible Kindle


And, on the flip side of this, I submit the following response (followed by 
my original questions), from Amazon. By no means is the access currently 
available good enough for full, or even IMO acceptable, use of the Kindle. 
It's a nice start, but let's hope they continue and don't stop with this.

Hello,

Thanks for writing to us with your comments.

Voice Guide lets you navigate your Kindle with spoken menus, selectable 
items, and descriptions. For example, when you open a book, Kindle speaks 
your current location and how far you’ve read.

Presently we don't have the features like enabling the voice guide and TTS 
features without sighted assistance, navigate or read by smaller increments 
in text to speech, voice guide or text to speech work in the Web browser, 
enabling text to speech for the books which have text to speech option 
disabled.

I've sent your comments to the Kindle team for consideration. We're 
regularly working on improvements to your Kindle experience. Customer 
feedback like yours helps us continue to improve the service we provide.

I hope this helps. We look forward to seeing you again soon.

Did I solve your problem?

If yes, please click here:
http://www.amazon.com/rsvp-y?c=yagwhvtx3324198336

If no, please click here:
http://www.amazon.com/rsvp-n?c=yagwhvtx3324198336

Please note: this e-mail was sent from an address that cannot accept 
incoming e-mail.

To contact us about an unrelated issue, please visit the Help section of our 
web site.

Best regards,

Madhu Y
Amazon.com
Your feedback is helping us build Earth's Most Customer-Centric Company.
http://www.amazon.com/your-account

---- Original message: ----

Hi,

I'm very interested in the Kindle 3, but as a blind user, I have a few 
concerns. Before I outline those concerns, I would like to say that I, for 
one, am happy to purchase if Amazon can make a commitment to our community 
to make accessibility improvements where warranted.

As you might suppose, my concerns directly relate to the text to speech and 
voice guide features:

1) Will voice guide speak as you type? Will it read options as they are 
navigated and selected? Can you select books with it? Documentation is 
definitely lacking in this area. With voice guide enabled, will it be 
possible to use Kindle as outlined in the rest of the manual, without 
looking at the screen at all?

2) Do menus wrap? Would it be possible to enable the voice guide and TTS 
features without sighted assistance? If not, I would recommend that it 
should be.

3) With text to speech reading of Kindle ebooks, is it possible to navigate 
or read by smaller increments? In other words, can I navigate a book by 
word, or even by character? If I need to have an unfamiliar name or term 
spelled, is this possible? These features are essential if Kindle is to be 
used by a student in a classroom environment.

4) Does voice guide or text to speech work in the Web browser? Can it be 
used, not only to read Web content but to navigate to that content? Is it 
possible to browse the Kindle store to purchase books, again, using only 
text to speech and voice guide?

5) Will it be possible to enable text to speech for blind users on books 
where it is by default disabled? If not, is there some way to know whether a 
book is TTS-enabled before purchasing it? I would hate to buy a book, only 
to find I am unable to read it.

In short, I would like some assurance that Amazon is working towrd real 
accessibility to the Kindle, and not just a token effort that amounts to 
little more than a toy.
--
Buddy Brannan, KB5ELV - Erie, PA
Phone: (814) 860-3194 or 888-75-BUDDY




--
Buddy Brannan, KB5ELV - Erie, PA
Phone: (814) 860-3194 or 888-75-BUDDY



On Jul 29, 2010, at 1:28 PM, David Andrews wrote:

>
>> FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
>>
>>
>>
>> CONTACT:
>>
>> Chris Danielsen
>>
>> Director of Public Relations
>>
>> National Federation of the Blind
>>
>> (410) 659-9314, extension 2330
>>
>> (410) 262-1281 (Cell)
>>
>> <mailto:cdanielsen at nfb.org>cdanielsen at nfb.org
>>
>>
>>
>> National Federation of the Blind Commends Amazon
>> on Unveiling of New Accessible Kindle
>>
>>
>>
>> Baltimore, Maryland (July 29, 2010): The National Federation of the Blind 
>> (NFB) today commended Amazon on the unveiling of a new, accessible 
>> Kindle.  Amazon announced Wednesday that the new Kindle will come 
>> equipped with a voice guide that reads all menu options aloud so blind 
>> and other print-disabled people can navigate the device menus.
>>
>>
>>
>> Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the National Federation of the Blind, said: 
>> "We commend Amazon on the unveiling of a new Kindle that blind and 
>> print-disabled people can use.  In order to compete in today's digital 
>> society, blind and print-disabled people must be able to access the same 
>> reading technologies as the sighted.  The National Federation of the 
>> Blind has long been urging Amazon to make its reading device accessible, 
>> and we are pleased that our efforts have come to fruition."
>>
>>
>>
>> In June 2009 the National Federation of the Blind and the American 
>> Council of the Blind (ACB) filed suit against Arizona State University 
>> (ASU) to prevent the university from deploying Amazon's Kindle DX 
>> electronic reading device as a means of distributing electronic textbooks 
>> to its students because the device cannot be used by blind students.  The 
>> Kindle DX featured text-to-speech technology that can read textbooks 
>> aloud to blind students.  The menus of the device were not accessible to 
>> the blind, however, making it impossible for a blind user to purchase 
>> books from Amazon's Kindle store, select a book to read, activate the 
>> text-to-speech feature, and use the advanced reading functions available 
>> on the Kindle DX.
>>
>>
>>
>> For more information on the National Federation of the Blind, please 
>> visit <http://www.nfb.org/>www.nfb.org.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> ###
>>
>>
>>
>> About the National Federation of the Blind
>>
>> With more than 50,000 members, the National Federation of the Blind is 
>> the largest and most influential membership organization of blind people 
>> in the United States.  The NFB improves blind people's lives through 
>> advocacy, education, research, technology, and programs encouraging 
>> independence and self-confidence.  It is the leading force in the 
>> blindness field today and the voice of the nation's blind.  In January 
>> 2004 the NFB opened the National Federation of the Blind Jernigan 
>> Institute, the first research and training center in the United States 
>> for the blind led by the blind.
>
>       David Andrews and long white cane Harry, dandrews at visi.com
> Follow me on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/dandrews920
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