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Originally Posted by Sil_liS
You misunderstand more than just my posts.
It's not ACS compliant, it's compliant with accessibility for disabled people. ACS stands for Advanced Communications Services.
The situation is this: if a device has a browser it means at this point in time that it offers Advanced Communications Services, and therefore it needs to be accessible to people with disabilities according to the FCC rules.
The coalition of e-reader manufacturers is saying that the browsers that they install on e-readers aren't offering good access to Advanced Communications Services, as they put it "the user experience would not be robust". And they do this because of the specs.
If someone improves an eink e-reader with color and a faster refresh rate, by the definition expressed by the manufacturers it will no longer be an e-reader, so if the petition is accepted e-readers as a class of devices will never be significantly better than they are now.
Interesting example, beside the fact that you assumed that ACS is an acronym that is related to people with disabilities.
While the average car that exits the assembly line is not accessible to people with disabilities you can add features for the handicapped.
TL;DR
ACS => must make device accessible for the disabled
Browser = ACS
Want exemption from accessibility laws for e-readers with browsers? => make sure that e-readers aren't going to have specs that are good enough for a good browsing experience and say it isn't really ACS.
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I do know ACS stands for Advanced Communications Services. I understood, perhaps wrongly, that ACS compliant meant the device had to have a browser accessible to the disabled.
Blind people are far from the only disabled, but the ones who would have the most trouble using a browser IMO. I do not think that it is possible for the average blind user to use a browser on a device the size of most ereaders although size may not enter into it. I do know a blind person who uses a browser on a desktop, but she uses voice recognition software and a keyboard and it is still pretty difficult.
Again, I am not understanding why you think all ereader development would be stopped dead in it's tracks by allowing libraries and schools to only buy ACS compliant devices which is my understanding of the rules. But maybe this is much further reaching than I think.
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477 Equipment, such as general purpose computers, that are used by libraries and schools without customization, and are offered to the general public i.e., library visitors and students, would not fall within the exemption and must meet the accessibility requirements of Section 716.
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But to beat the dead horse once more, even if all ereaders are currently exempt, someone will build an ACS compliant one and libraries and schools will probably buy it, others will follow. They may cost more and be bulkier but probably not that much. A kindle keyboard is possibly pretty close. Has speakers, has keyboard. Doesn't have color eink, which you seem to deem necessary for the disabled, but most of them don't.
And once again I will say that the ereader market has flattened out to a point that manufacturers must make them better to entice current owners to buy another. Sure there are untapped markets, but it's easier to sell in their current market.
I think your worries about development of speakers, eink screens, microphones are unfounded, but who knows for sure. Time will tell.
Helen