DOJ and DOE: Ereaders Must Be Accessible
By David Rapp Jul 1, 2010The U.S. Departments of Justice (DOJ) and Education (DOE), in a letter released Tuesday, reinforced their firm stance against universities using ereaders that cannot be used by the blind.
The departments jointly released an open "Dear Colleague" letter, directed at colleges and universities, advising them against using ereaders that are "not accessible to students who are blind or have low vision," and calling their use "unacceptable."
"With technological advances, procuring electronic book readers that are accessible should be neither costly nor difficult," the departments stated.
Past settlements
This pointed reiteration of the departments' position mentions recent settlements the DOJ made with five academic institutions. As LJ reported in January, four schools-Arizona State University (ASU), Tempe; Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland; Pace University, New York City; and Reed College, Portland, OR-agreed not to use any ereaders, including Amazon's Kindle DX, until they are rendered fully accessible for blind students.
Princeton University, NJ, reached a similar agreement with the DOJ in March. (The settlements can be seen on the Americans with Disabilities Act website.)
The five schools, along with the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, had been part of a pilot project last year for students to deploy Kindle DXs to help determine the role of ereaders in an academic setting.
However, in July 2009, ASU was sued by the National Federation of the Blind and the American Council of the Blind, who charged that the Kindle DX, though it did have a text-to-speech function, had an interface that made it impossible for blind people to use.
Accessible options
Apple's iPad, as well as its iPod Touch and iPhone devices, offer the capacity to be fully accessible to the blind. A technology called VoiceOver describes out loud whatever is under the user's finger on the touch-screen.
But the iPad is currently more expensive than other ereaders. Princeton has also reported an ongoing problem with iPads on its campus, due to a software bug which has led to network difficulties.
The Kindle, however, may soon find its way back to universities. In December 2009, Amazon announced that it aimed to add more accessibility features to the Kindle, including audible menus. The latest iteration of the Kindle, due to be released next week, has larger font options, but time will tell if more features will follow.
