University of Wisconsin-Madison and Syracuse University Will Not Use Kindle DX

11/11/2009 12:12:00 PM

The NFB today applauded the decision of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Syracuse University to not deploy Amazon’s Kindle DX as a means of distributing electronic textbooks (e-books) to their students.  The Kindle DX features text-to-speech technology that can read textbooks aloud.  The menus of the device are 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.  Both universities have experimented with the Kindle DX to learn whether e-book technology is useful to their students.  But the schools will not adopt the device for general use unless and until it is made accessible to blind students.  For more on this, read the official press release or the Associated Press article that came out this morning.