As far as I know, though I have not emailed the friend who is an
intellectual property lawyer recently, disabling speech on some books
is an issue with people represented by the Authors' Guild because
writers can sell audio performance rights separately from other rights
such as print or electronic distribution.
I think someone should sit some reps from the Authors' guild down to
compare the experience between things read by a live human at ordinary
speech speeds and the chipmunks on steroids blistering ast rates most
blind people I know use to read. Electronic voices are designed with
algorithms to preserve different features at high speeds than happen if
oridinary human readers are sped up. The effect is NOT the same at all.
I support authros' right o fair compensation for different kinds of
rights but the authors' guild should not be able to stand in the way.
End of rant.
Dorene Cornwell
Seattle WA
-----Original Message-----
From: Catherine Getchell <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Thu, Jul 29, 2010 2:18 pm
Subject: Re: [VICUG-L] New Accessible Kindle from Amazon
Does anyone know if publishers have loosened the restrictions so that
all their books can be read by the Kindle's text to speech voice? In
the past, some publishers were insisting that Amazon put a lock on some
of their books so that the could not be read via speech output. They
didn't want to disrupt their audio book market. Hopefully that's now a
thing of the past.
Catherine Getchell
----- Original Message -----
From: Senk, Mark J. (CDC/NIOSH/NPPTL)
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Thursday, July 29, 2010 1:43 PM
Subject: [VICUG-L] New Accessible Kindle from Amazon
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Chris Danielsen
Director of Public Relations
National Federation of the Blind
(410) 659-9314, extension 2330
(410) 262-1281 (Cell)
<mailto:[log in to unmask]> [log in to unmask]
National Federation of the Blind Commends Amazon
on Unveiling of New Accessible Kindle
Baltimore, Maryland (July 29, 2010): The National Federation of the
Blind
(NFB) today commended Amazon on the unveiling of a new, accessible
Kindle.
Amazon announced Wednesday that the new Kindle will come equipped
with a
voice guide that reads all menu options aloud so blind and other
print-disabled people can navigate the device menus.
Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the National Federation of the Blind,
said:
"We commend Amazon on the unveiling of a new Kindle that blind and
print-disabled people can use. In order to compete in today's digital
society, blind and print-disabled people must be able to access the
same
reading technologies as the sighted. The National Federation of the
Blind
has long been urging Amazon to make its reading device accessible,
and we
are pleased that our efforts have come to fruition."
In June 2009 the National Federation of the Blind and the American
Council
of the Blind (ACB) filed suit against Arizona State University (ASU)
to
prevent the university from deploying Amazon's Kindle DX electronic
reading
device as a means of distributing electronic textbooks to its students
because the device cannot be used by blind students. The Kindle DX
featured
text-to-speech technology that can read textbooks aloud to blind
students.
The menus of the device were not accessible to the blind, however,
making it
impossible for a blind user to purchase books from Amazon's Kindle
store,
select a book to read, activate the text-to-speech feature, and use
the
advanced reading functions available on the Kindle DX.
For more information on the National Federation of the Blind, please
visit
www.nfb.org <http://www.nfb.org/> .
###
About the National Federation of the Blind
With more than 50,000 members, the National Federation of the Blind
is the
largest and most influential membership organization of blind people
in the
United States. The NFB improves blind people's lives through advocacy,
education, research, technology, and programs encouraging
independence and
self-confidence. It is the leading force in the blindness field today
and
the voice of the nation's blind. In January 2004 the NFB opened the
National Federation of the Blind Jernigan Institute, the first
research and
training center in the United States for the blind led by the blind.
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