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

[David Andrews]

Joel:  I would say there are three reasons for the protest.  First, 
there are groups in the Reading Rights Coalition who are directly 
impacted now -- persons with disabilities besides 
blindness.  Secondly, it is my understanding that Amazon has said 
that they intend to make the device accessible to blind persons at 
some point, so we are working for the future, and third, I think we 
are trying to stop something by the authors before something worse 
happens.  If we loose the right to use text to speech here -- what is next?

Dave

At 11:00 AM 5/21/2009, you wrote:
>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.
>
>
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