I've been meaning to email you since I read the Kindle Nation Daily about John Grisham's books and how Text to Speech is not enabled. How absolutely stupid of Amazon to allow that! Don't they realize that they could be sued? By allowing that to happen, they are opening themselves up to an Americans with Disabilities Act discrimination lawsuit. All it takes is a visually impaired person with a Kindle, who wants to listen to a book by John Grisham, and can't because Text to Speech isn't enabled, so the blind person sues Amazon for violation of the ADA. And yes, it's possible. The text to speech feature is there on the Kindle, it's advertised for that purpose, but when publishers turn it off, that's a violation of the ADA. And frankly, that'll cost Amazon, THOUSANDS of dollars.
How do I know this? I've sued businesses in the past for not being ADA compliant. Now, granted, I've sued them for things like not having a wheelchair accessible bathroom, and aisles that weren't wide enough, but, the issue with the Text to Speech, could turn into a class action lawsuit. Me, when I sued businesses, it cost the business about $30,000. I got $4-5000, and my attorney got the rest. And they fixed whatever was wrong. If it wasn't fixed within a certain amount of time, they got held in contempt. Major big bucks. I can see Amazon getting sued, AND the publisher getting sued, not that I wouldn't mind the publishers getting sued, but Amazon doesn't need that. It's the PUBLISHERS that have turned off the Text to Speech options on the books, not Amazon.
I'm fairly sure Amazon hasn't thought of this, because if they had, Text to Speech wouldn't be an option publishers could turn off... David Fernau (another Kindle Nation citizen) says that they would know about it... but I've been doing ADA compliance inspections for over a decade, Steve, and Amazon is acting like a business that doesn't know the ADA. I'm willing to bet they haven't thought of it. And the improvements for the blind and visually impaired that you mentioned in the next upgrade to the Kindle don't mean squat if Amazon is sued out of existence.
I just wish I knew someone at Amazon I could talk to and convince to get Text to Speech permanently turned on, or at least a policy written where they tell the publishers (in writing) that they (Amazon) are not responsible for what the publishers do and that the publishers are violating FEDERAL LAW by turning off Text to Speech. Some Federal judge somewhere would be rubbing their hands together at the prospect of presiding over this case, while lawyers would be circling above waiting for the right time to strike.
I'm hoping this sounds coherent, Steve, I've been up all night. My husband is across the country in Atlanta for training and I'm home alone for the 2nd time since I got married 18 years ago (he was gone for a month just a year ago), and being physically disabled, this is not something I enjoy. Anyway, I've been thinking on this since I read the Kindle Nation Daily and wanted to write you and let you know that Amazon is treading a fine line here. I'd hate to see them go down in flames just because they allowed some publishers to turn off a feature on the Kindle that seemed to be a luxury, and for the most part it is. But there are an increasing amount of disabled persons that are going to buy something like the Kindle as it is very user friendly, and allows them to enjoy books unassisted.
Dana
From the Kindle Nation Mailbag: Are Amazon, Publishers Who Opt Out of Text-to-Speech Violating Americans with Disabilities Act?
Thanks to Kindle Nation citizen Dana for sharing her strong views on this important issue:
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8 comments:
I agree that the ADA could be used to try and push this, but Amazon has a strong legal leg to stand on in this case.
Amazon has made it quite clear this is an "experimental" feature and that it can be eliminated at any point in time.
The experimental features are not considered standard features nor are they required to be provided at all.
If the feature was a regular, fully utilized (i.e. universally available regardless of the publishers agreements) and expected to work without fail 'feature' on the Kindle they would face a huge, quite possibly very successful ADA suit.
On the other hand, Apple has VoiceOver technology enabled universally on their computers and have decided to extend that feature to the iPad as well. Thus they would be in violation of ADA if they decided to include VO technology but kept it out of books.
Just some thoughts from a long time Apple user and a brand new (3-weeks!) Kindle 2 user who is DELIGHTED with his K2.
I subscribe to Kindle Nation Daily on the Kindle, but have received no issues since last Thursday. Are you still publishing on the Kindle?
Scott Witt
4scott@prodigy.net
Hi Scott,
Thanks for checking in. Amazon's working on this updating issue, but there is a manual fix outlined in this post:
From the Kindle Nation Mailbag: How to Make Sure You Are Receiving Your Kindle Nation Daily Subscription
at http://bit.ly/KNDPostsNotUpdating
Would you mind if I forward your comment to Amazon so they can include you in their effort?
Thanks!
Steve
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Stephen Windwalker
Kindle Nation: http://kindlehomepage.blogspot.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/WindwalkerHere
What would be great is if the TTS could be enabled by Amazon for the blind. Maybe there would be "vision impaired" Kindles specially for the legally blind, and on those the TTS would always work, and the publishers could opt out of it working on the "regular" Kindle like they do now. The Library of Congress sends special audiobooks to the blind free of charge, through the mail. Something like Kindle with TTS could eliminate the need for that program, and save money & resources, while giving the visually impaired a greater variety of reading material with no waiting!
Experimental or not, it's there, and covered by the ADA... if experimental meant they could go around it, then businesses could label anything like that, and circumvent the ADA and not do the alterations that the ADA required. I'll check into this, but I believe you're in error.
I'm curious -- I am a lawyer, but not an ADA expert (although I recently researched and gave legal advice about an ADA issue as it affects local governments) -- how is this any different than paper books not made available in braille or large text? How about paper books that are not turned into audio books? Are those publishers going to be under the ADA gun? That technology is just as available as text-to-speech...
That being said, despite your thoughts to the contrary, I would be very surprised if Amazon's lawyers had not considered the ADA implications of the Kindle -- lawyers do, in fact, sit around dreaming up worst-case scenarios for their clients.
I should also add this -- cynical as it might sound, an ADA challenge, even if successful, that cost Amazon thousands of dollars, isn't something that's going to scare Amazon, let alone bring it to its knees. Amazon probably spends a few million a year on legal fees alone - without blinking an eye. It's just the nature of corporate law these days.
To the lawyer, I am an ADA expert, but my expertise, comes in regards to service animals. I am very conversant in the ADAAG (ADA Archectual Guidelines).
Now, with the Text-to-Speech option, publishers can make their books accessible to everyone... yes, their are organizations that transcribe books into audio format for the blind, or into braille as well... but if the publisher would do it when they publish it, they will see a increase in their bottom line. It's good business, and it's the law... it just haven't been challenged yet to make publishers make all their books available in audio format.
If publishers did that, they wouldn't only get the visually impaired as their customers, they would get those that like to listen to books in their cars, and at home, and anywhere they can play a sound file (IPod, Kindle, etc)
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