Spotted on The Mac-cessibility Site, Anazon’s Kindle team is working on some accessibility improvements. The main focus seems to be on voice feedback during navigation. The lack of an audio interface meant that the Kindle text-to-speech feature, Talk to Me, would not be accessible to blind users without the help of a sighted person....
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It has been pointed out to me that an effort to convince the iPhone developer community to embrace accessible design may have more fruitful approaches. Specifically, I have been told that it would be more effective to lobby Apple as well as individual app developers. If you find this post useful or interesting, please consider...
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An Open Letter to Jeff Bezos at Amazon Does Amazon have a Chief Accessibility Officer? Someone who oversees accessibility issues across the company? It does not seem so. With Amazon at the heart of both online shopping and digital books (audio and e-books), you need a strong corporate position on accessibility. Not only is there...
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A peeition to Make the Kindle 2 Fully Accessible has been started. We, the undersigned, ask Amazon Technologies, Inc., and its affiliates, to modify the new Kindle 2, and add the ability to have all menu choices spoken with voice prompts, so that all blind and sighted individuals may purchase, and make full use of...
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Today Amazon announced that it was surrendering to the Author’s Guild – Amazon Backs off Text-to-Speech Feature in Kindle – Bits Blog – NYTimes.com. The new Talk To Me feature, a form of text to speech, in Amazon’s Kindle will be disabled at the whim of the publisher. How many publishers will not exercise...
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The brouhaha over the new Kindle’s text-to-speech function possibly violating copyright has really caught fire. The issue hit the papers as well as the blogosphere. The Wall Street Journal carried the sotry with New Kindle Audio Feature Causes a Stir. Several fellow accessibility blogs have picked up the issue. The Talking Books Librarian...
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Spotted on Slashdot, Author’s Guild Says Kindle’s Text-To-Speech Software Illegal. “The Author’s Guild claims that the new Kindle’s text-to-speech software is illegal, stating that “They don’t have the right to read a book out loud,” said Paul Aiken, executive director of the Authors Guild. “That’s an audio right, which is derivative under copyright law.” Forget...
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The NY Times, along with every other news source, is reporting on the new version of Amazon’s e-book reader, the Kindle.Buried among all the other changes is one important accessibility feature: text-to-speech. According to the Times: Giving Voice to the Kindle: The Kindle 2 also has text-to-speech built in. “Any book, blog, magazine or personal...
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