Arizona State University and two national organizations representing the blind that sued the institution over its use of the Amazon Kindle have reached an agreement to settle the lawsuit, the three parties announced in a joint statement today.
Arizona State is one of several universities involved in a pilot program testing the Kindle DX, an electronic-reading device.
The complaint, filed by the National Federation of the Blind and the American Council of the Blind, alleged that using the Kindle to distribute electronic textbooks violated federal law because the device cannot be used by blind students.
The settlement agreement does not involve any monetary damages, and Arizona State continues to deny any violation of the law. But the university did agree that if it did decide to use e-book readers in classes over the next two years, “it will strive to use devices that are accessible to the blind.”
4 Responses to Arizona State U. and 2 Groups for the Blind Settle Lawsuit Over Kindle
tlgriffith18 - January 12, 2010 at 11:33 am
Are these organizations going to start suing regular publishers because regular books cannot be used by the blind? And car manufacturers because cars cannot be driven by the blind? As long as the required texts are ALSO available in an appropriate format, I disagree with this kind of lawsuit.
maxbini - January 12, 2010 at 11:56 pm
If you consider that an ebook reader is using technology that has already been available to people with vision impairments for many years (screen reading software on computers and mobile phones) and could fairly easily have been made to be fully accessible, then it is important that both Universities and manufacturers realise this and are pushed to implement it. The settlement is in real terms an acknowledgment of this need for universal accessibility.It is wrong to view this as somehow priveleging those who are blind or have low vision or disadvantaging other students – it is a matter of fairness and the avoidance of indirect discrimination.
texasmusic - January 13, 2010 at 4:58 pm
Regular textbooks CAN be used by the blind, believe it or not. Adaptive technology is available for that, aside from the obvious audiobooks, which I suspect aren’t available for most textbooks anyway. The problem with the Kindle is that the adaptive technology that is available was not made available on the device. It was a terrible oversight and it neeeds to be fixed. This is not a frivolous lawsuit.
hafajc - January 13, 2010 at 9:05 pm
Idiotic, but not surprising.Let’s all of us with no legs sue shoe makers as well.The inconsiderate B*&^%stards.Idiotic, Idiotic, idiotic.Makes perfect sense to liberals who need **inclusion** for **vulnerable populations**.Idiotic.