[Oabs] #AmazonFail

[Kaiti Shelton]

Hi, OABS,

Some of you may have heard that next Wednesday members of the NFB will
be protesting New York City Schools and their decision to partner with
Amazon as the exclusive provider of all textbook materials.  For any
blind children in NYC schools, this is a terribly inaccessible and
discriminant policy.  Amazon has repeatedly ignored the National
Federation of the Blind's attempts to advise and educate them on the
importance of accessibility, and our politer attempts to prompt them
to make accessibility more of a priority in their products.  Two
letters were specifically sent about this issue and were ignored, so
now anyone who can make it to New York in support of our cause has
been asked to go.

Obviously since we are a few hundred miles away, and starting our own
semesters, it will not be possible for any of our students to be
there.  However, I do know that we're all active on social media and
can help there.  Using the hashtag #AmazonFail, you can tweet messages
to the groups involved including New York City Schools @NYCSchools,
the mayor of NYC @NYCMayorsOffice, and of course Amazon @Amazon.
Let's tell these groups that accessibility does matter for equality in
education, and hopefully the mayor and schools of New York will join
with us to send an even clearer message to Amazon.

-- 
Kaiti Shelton
University of Dayton 2016.
Music Therapy, Psychology, Philosophy
President, Ohio Association of Blind Students
Secretary, NFB Performing Arts Division
Sigma Alpha Iota-Delta Sigma