[gui-talk] A glitch in the righteous posture? (was Reading Rights Coalition Denounces Random House)

[Joel Deutsch]

I have seen a lot of discussion on this issue about the Amazon Kindle and 
the juggling of copyright law in regard to speech output. I don't wish to 
address the legal issues, either from the copyright side or the ADA side. 
But what I do wonder, repeatedly, is what all this can matter, practically 
speaking, for someone like me lacking central (macular) vision or totally 
blind, as the controls that allow use of this device are said to be 
inaccessible, I believe because they're touch-screen controls and not 
mechanical buttons whose use can be memorized by an enterprising person with 
a little help from a sighted tutor, meaning a friend who will patiently 
teach the skill.

For whose benefit is protest being made at this point? The partially sighted 
who can read visually given enough text size and contrast, but who for some 
reason can't locate and identify the control buttons? if so, I can say fine, 
no problem. But If the stated objection is without regard to the possible 
ironies and contradictions and, as such, is actually just a first step in an 
anticipated battle to inspire yet a further upgrade to the Kindle that will, 
this time, include blind-operable controls, that too I could understand. 
Hassle them about the copyright thing first, then, while they're busy 
fighting the NFB over that, hit them with the control inaccessibility thing. 
Never having been entirely serious about the copyright issue while it was 
still moot for practical reasons to do with nonoperability.

Personally, if I were to purchase a Kindle, I'd have to do all my reading on 
it aided by a sighted person who could change the page display for me, like 
the page turner who stands beside the bench of a concert pianist as the 
pianist plays from his or her score. This isn't practical for me, as I have 
neither a slave or a paid assistant. So I continue to buy my commercial 
recorded books from audible. com and play the files either on my computer 
with the Jaws-friendly Audible Manager software or on my .mp3 player, which 
required two people, one blind via email and a second sighted and here with 
me, to teach me how to use well enough despite the unit's reliance on a menu 
window.

I hope I've posed this seeming contradiction clearly enough.

thanks.