Amazon Announces Plans for More Kindle Accessibility
— ♣Yesterday, in a brief post on Amazon’s Kindle Blog, the Kindle development team notes that they’ve received a great deal of feedback from visually impaired readers, and that they are working to make the Kindle more accessible in the future. Specifically, the post mentions adding speech feedback to the navigation system of the device.
While hopeful news, it comes on the heels of continuing efforts by the Author’s Guild to eliminate text-to-speech capabilities in portable book readers, and by extension eliminate access to such devices for blind and low vision users.
Ultimately, improved access to the device will make little difference, if the guild and publishers succeed in their efforts to eliminate the use of access technology with their content. Such a victory for them could eventually have far-reaching and adverse consequences to mainstream devices with accessibility features, like those produced by Apple and other companies with a commitment to accessibility.
We encourage any and all who feel strongly about this to contact the Author’s Guild via email, or use the below contact information.
The Authors Guild
31 East 32nd Street, 7th Floor
New York, NY 10016
Phone: (212) 563-5904
Fax: (212) 564-5363
The above contact information is publicly available on the Author’s Guild’s Contact page.