Why did feds claim Kindle violates civil rights?
  By:
Byron York
Chief Political Correspondent
August 3, 2010
  Did you know the Justice Department threatened several 
universities with legal action because they took part in an 
experimental program to allow students to use the Amazon Kindle 
for textbooks?
  Last year, the schools -- among them Princeton, Arizona State 
and Case Western Reserve
-- wanted to know if e-book readers would be more convenient and 
less costly than traditional textbooks.  The environmentally 
conscious educators also wanted to reduce the huge amount of 
paper students use to print files from their laptops.
  It seemed like a promising idea until the universities got a 
letter from the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, now 
under an aggressive new chief, Thomas Perez, telling them they 
were under investigation for possible violations of the Americans 
With Disabilities Act.
  From its introduction in 2007, the Kindle has drawn criticism 
from the
National Federation
of the Blind and other activist groups.  While the Kindle's 
text-to-speech feature could read a book aloud, its menu 
functions required sight to operate.  "If you could get a sighted 
person to fire up the device and start reading the book to you, 
that's fine," says Chris Danielsen, a spokesman for the 
federation.  "But other than that, there was really no way to use 
it."
  In May 2009, Amazon announced the pilot program, under which it 
would provide Kindle DX readers to a few universities.  It wasn't 
a huge deal; Princeton's plan, for example, involved three 
courses and a total of 51 students, and only in the fall semester 
of that year.  University spokeswoman Emily Aronson says the 
program was voluntary and students could opt out of using the 
Kindle.  "There were no students with a visual impairment who had 
registered for the three classes," says Aronson.
  Nevertheless, in June 2009, the federation filed a complaint 
with the Justice Department, accusing the schools of violating 
the ADA.  Perez and his team went to work.
  "We acted swiftly to respond to complaints we received about 
the use of the Amazon Kindle," Perez recently told a House 
committee.  "We must remain vigilant to ensure that as new 
devices are introduced, people with disabilities are not left 
behind."
  The Civil Rights Division informed the schools they were under 
investigation.  In subsequent talks, the Justice Department 
demanded the universities stop distributing the Kindle; if blind 
students couldn't use the device, then nobody could.
  The Federation made the same demand in a separate lawsuit 
against Arizona State.
  It's an approach that bothers some civil rights experts.  "As a 
blind person, I would never want to be associated with any 
movement that punished sighted students, particularly for nothing 
they had ever done," says Russell Redenbaugh, a California 
investor who lost his sight in a childhood accident and later 
served for 15 years on the U.S.  Commission on Civil Rights.  
"It's a gross injustice to disadvantage one group, and it's bad 
policy that breeds resentment, not compassion."
  Some officials at the schools were puzzled.  Given the speed of 
technological development and the reality of competition among 
technology companies -- Apple products were already fully 
text-to-speech capable -- wasn't this a problem the market would 
solve?
  That's not Perez's way.  To him, keeping the Kindle out of 
sighted students'
hands
underscored "the importance of full and equal educational 
opportunities for everyone."
In early 2010, after most of the courses were over, the Justice 
Department reached agreement with the schools, and the federation 
settled with Arizona State.  The schools denied violating the ADA 
but agreed that until the Kindle was fully accessible, nobody 
would use it.
  One obvious solution to the problem, of course, was to fix the 
Kindle.  Early on, Amazon told federation officials it would 
apply text-to-speech technology to the Kindle's menu and function 
keys.  And sure enough, last week the company announced a new 
generation of Kindles that are fully accessible to the blind.  
While the Justice Department was making demands, and Perez was 
making speeches, the market was working.
  But as Amazon was unveiling the new Kindle last week, Perez was 
sending a letter to educators warning them they must use 
technology "in a manner that is permissible under federal law."
Now, Perez is at work on a far bigger project, one that could 
eventually declare the Internet a "public accommodation" under 
the ADA.  That could result in a raft of new Justice Department 
regulations for disabled access to all sorts of Web sites.
  Of course, most Web access problems are already being solved by 
the market, but that won't stop the Justice Department's zealous 
civil rights enforcer.
  Byron York, The Examiner's chief political correspondent, can 
be contacted at [log in to unmask] .  His column 
appears on Tuesday and Friday, and his stories and blog posts 
appears on ExaminerPoliticsddcom


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