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Three American schools can no longer use the Amazon Kindle in their classrooms, based on their settlement with the US Department of Justice. Case Western Reserve University, Pace University, and Reed College had to give way to a complaint lodged by The National Federation of the blind and The American Council of the blind. Both organizations complained that using Kindles as educational tools were discriminatory to students with reduced or non-existent vision:
The universities agreed that if they use dedicated electronic book readers, they will ensure that students with vision disabilities are able to access and acquire the same materials and information, engage in the same interactions, and enjoy the same services as sighted students with substantially equivalent ease of use.
The DOJ’s agreement with each university becomes effective at the end of the Kindle pilot projects.
The development has apparently prompted Amazon to roll-out add features to the Kindle designed for the vision-impaired, scheduled for the middle of this year. Currently, the Kindle read text out loud, but it doesn’t do the same for menu items and navigation.
Personally, I don’t understand why Case Western and co. have to suspend their Kindle programs until Amazon makes the device more accessible. I definitely can’t begin to understand how different things are for those who are legally or literally blind, but isn’t the settlement akin to asking people to stop using calculators, for the sake of people who don’t have fingers?
My point is that, while Amazon works on getting those new features out, can’t the university set up special provisions to accommodate those with poor or no vision? Like get volunteers to assist these people with their Kindles in class (free sit-in!), or structure the interaction so that the blind aren’t left behind. Adapting an environment in such a way isn’t necessarily discriminatory, right? So I don’t understand why the resolution of this issue required going to the extreme.
843 days ago
[...] experience: Plenty of high-tech devices require special accommodations for disabled students, says Rico Mossesgeld at EveryJoe’s Gadget Blog. Rather than take the Kindle away from sighted students, why not involve them in assisting their [...]
“Three American schools can no longer use the Amazon Kindle in their classrooms”
Not true, they can continue exactly as they planned. Read the actual settlement before making misstatements:
“will take effect on the date following the last day of the pilot project with Amazon.com, Inc., which will terminate no later than the conclusion of the spring 2010 semester.”
The pilot project continues.