Hello. I'll ask for your forgiveness in advance as I expect this post
will be a bit long and will contain some thoughts I've been having
regarding the future of this amazing device.
First, I don't know how many of you are following what is happening or,
in some cases, what is not happening regarding the state of the Kindle
Keyboard or the Kindle III as it's unofficially called by many users.
Depending on what you read Amazon has either discontinued or temporarily
removed the K3 Wifi unit from its Web site and it is now only available
via third party sellers via Amazon or, I'm sure, through other vendors.
The Keyboard 3g/Wifi unit is still officially available. Tech articles
I've read suggest that the K3 Wifi has been discontinued. When I wrote
to Amazon their email support informed me that the device was merely out
of stock due to popular demand. I suspect that the tech world's
suspicion that Amazon will slowly be phasing out its Keyboard line of
Kindles is a correct assumption although we don't know for sure what
they're planning. Whispers strongly indicate that a new batch of
Kindles is soon on the way and we could hear announcements about them
any day now.
I realize that the Kindle Keyboard has been out now for two years and,
in this industry, this is a long time for one product to be out without
being replaced. I don't think it's reasonable to expect amazon to keep
our trusty K3 around forever. However, considering their poor record of
accessibility I am concerned that future Kindle models will possess
little if no accessibility for visually impaired users. Last year their
new line of Kindles had no accessibility although I believe the Touch
has TTS for books but not for menus. After the new Kindles were
announced last year I did hear that Amazon was looking for an
accessibility engineer. This is a somewhat hopeful sign that we may ...
and I say may see some accessibility in future models. Of course, we
won't know until the new line is shipping as companies like Amazon are
very tight-lipped about new hardware features and enhancements.
My point is that we have to face the possibility that the K3 could
possibly become discontinued soon. If this happens and if the new
Kindles have no accessibility then we will be using very nice but
obsolete hardware to read our books which is not a good position to
be in.
I'm wondering if any of you are aware of current advocacy taking place
to try to ensure that Amazon implements accessibility into future Kindle
models. Are ACB and NFB doing anything about this? I think the
situation regarding the State Department is actually very good for us
because it could get Amazon to rethink their position on accessibility,
which so far seems to be "we'll just do the bare minimum to say we've
done something." I'd like to get involved in advocacy but I'd prefer to
not reinvent the wheel if I can help it.
Regarding publishers blocking TTS on a book-by-book basis I've done my
share of writing to organizations such as Amazon, the reading Rights
coalition, the Authors' Guild and even Simon and Schuster regarding
allowing TTS to be available for us on all books and have received very
little response. Simon and Shcuster is a publisher which blocks TTS
from many of its Star Trek series of books. The name David Goldfield
means nothing to these organizations but an organized group representing
millions of potential customers might be able to actually make some
positive change for the print-disabled community. This is a point which
needs to be firmly made to publishers as well as to Amazon. there are
potentially millions of consumers who want to buy these devices and who
want to be able to access books. The implementation of accessibility as
a matter of course and not just an afterthought to avoid lawsuits will
only make more money for these vendors. Ignoring accessibility will
only cause Amazon to lose money and will drive millions of consumers to
Apple. I guess my point is this: if the Kindle is important to us we
are going to need to be more than just readers. We will need to be
activists. If we don't then we could soon be forced back into the blind
ghetto using $340.00 readers like the Victor Stream as our primary
reading aid.
David Goldfield
