[vicsireland] Re: Kindle EBook reader.
- From: "Flor Lynch" <florlync@xxxxxx>
- To: <vicsireland@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2009 12:38:50 -0000
Hi Darragh and list:
While the Kindle 2 does have text read aloud functionality, its menus and
controls are visual, and unfortunately are not speech accessible and do not
speak. here's an article from the US pertaining to it and the NFB's
[national Federation of the Blind] response to a 'concern' raised by a third
party.
National Federation of the Blind Responds to Authors Guild
Statement on the Amazon Kindle 2
Baltimore, Maryland (February 12, 2009): The National Federation of
the Blind, the largest organization of blind people in the United
States, today responded to a statement put out by the Authors Guild
advising its members to consider negotiating contracts prohibiting
e-books to be read aloud by the new Amazon Kindle 2, which
incorporates text-to-speech technology. The Authors Guild argues that
the reading of a book out loud by a machine is a copyright
infringement unless the copyright holder has specifically granted
permission for the book to be read aloud.
Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the National Federation of the Blind,
said: "The National Federation of the Blind supports all technologies
that allow blind people to have better access to the printed word,
including the ability of devices like the Kindle 2 to read commercial
e-books aloud using text-to-speech technology. Although the Authors
Guild claims that it supports making books accessible to the blind,
its position on the inclusion of text-to-speech technology in the
Kindle 2 is harmful to blind people. The Authors Guild says that
having a book read aloud by a machine in the privacy of one's home or
vehicle is a copyright infringement. But blind people routinely use
readers, either human or machine, to access books that are not
available in alternative formats like Braille or audio. Up until now,
no one has argued that this is illegal, but now the Authors Guild
says that it is. This is absolutely wrong. The blind and other
readers have the right for books to be presented to us in the format
that is most useful to us, and we are not violating copyright law as
long as we use readers, either human or machine, for private rather
than public listening. The key point is that reading aloud in private
is the same whether done by a person or a machine, and reading aloud
in private is never an infringement of copyright.
"Amazon has taken a step in the right direction by including
text-to-speech technology for reading e-books aloud on its new Kindle
2," Dr. Maurer continued. "We note, however, that the device itself
cannot be used independently by a blind reader because the controls
to download a book and begin reading it aloud are visual and
therefore inaccessible to the blind. We urge Amazon to rectify this
situation as soon as possible in order to make the Kindle 2 a device
that truly can be used both by blind and sighted readers. By doing
so, Amazon will make it possible for blind people to purchase a new
book and begin reading it immediately, just as sighted people do."
###
----- Original Message -----
From: "Darragh" <lists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <vicsireland@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, February 17, 2009 10:11 AM
Subject: [vicsireland] Kindle EBook reader.
Good morning,
I heard some interesting news in Windows Weekly this morning about an EBook
reader from Amazon called Kindle version 2 that contains text to speech
functionality. I.e, it has the ability to convert text in an EBook to
synthesized speech.
I only looked for some text to verify this for a moment so the link below
may not be the best source of information around but it's a start.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123419309890963869.html
The device is a tad pricy and I doubt many would be interested but it's
great that the functionality is there.
Darragh
===========================================================
The vicsireland mailing list
To unsubscribe at any time send a mail to:
vicsireland-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
with the word "unsubscribe", without the quotes in the subject of the message.
To contact the moderator send mail to:
tim.j.culhane@xxxxxxxxx
For mor information on the Visually Impaired Computer Society visit:
http://www.vicsireland.org
Other related posts:
