[vicsireland] Re: Kindle EBook reader.
- From: "Darragh" <lists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <vicsireland@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2009 16:18:29 -0000
Tony,
I firmly believe that demanding will get us no where. Showing the benefits to
us and people who rather the synthesized speech will proove more fruitful than
demanding.
A nice Email to the relevant people in Amazon thanking them for their work so
far and requesting they continue to enhance the accessibility of this product
might be useful.
Darragh
Blog and Linux accessibility walk-through's: www.digitaldarragh.com
-----Original Message-----
From: vicsireland-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx on behalf of Tony Sweeney
Sent: Tue 17/02/2009 15:30
To: vicsireland@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [vicsireland] Re: Kindle EBook reader.
Hi Flor, Darragh & Steve & All,
Thank you for that information!
I first heard mention of the Amazon Kindle on Marian Finucane's programme
last weekend.
They hope to have incidentally a technology slot on her show every month or
so!
I wonder if there is anything that Vics or say NCBI should be doing in order
to add their voice to "demanding" accessibility of The Kindle for blind
persons.
It always seems a shame that when we sometimes we think WE'RE THERE we are
sometimes two steps behind!
Tony
----- Original Message -----
From: "Flor Lynch" <florlync@xxxxxx>
To: <vicsireland@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, February 17, 2009 12:38 PM
Subject: [vicsireland] Re: Kindle EBook reader.
> 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
>
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