06-26-2009, 03:22 PM | #1 |
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National Federation of the Blind sues over Kindle TTS
According to a note on Teleread, the NFB is suing Arizona State University over its plans to use Kindle DXs, saying that Amazon's TTS service is wholly unusable by the blind. I read the NFB's position and wondered what Amazon's ultimate purpose for TTS is.
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06-26-2009, 03:39 PM | #2 | |
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Astak EZ Reader Pocket PRO also with TTS
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Yes, I am interested also. Seems to me that TTS would be a blessing for the blind. Our Pocket PRO has TTS and I think that helps the elderly and the blind. Yes, I agree that someone would have to be able to see to bring up a book and then enable the TTS. I wonder if they just want a one-button interface for the blind or something? On the surface, TTS should be lauded by the blind. |
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06-26-2009, 03:44 PM | #3 | |
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Oh, and I don't think you need a "one-click-does-all" button, but it would already help greatly if the menu items were spoken aloud too. |
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06-26-2009, 04:13 PM | #4 | |
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Dale |
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06-26-2009, 04:45 PM | #5 |
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@Robertb. No doubt this is a great feature for the blind, but also great for the public in general and that fact should not be excluded. This feature can help children with reading disabilities as well as those children who just are behind in reading. Let us not make TTS a one point argument there are many great reasons to support TTS.
I applaud your company for supporting TTS. While most folks here don't seem too interested in TTS this feature will soon become a must have feature as ebook readers become mainstream. =X= |
06-26-2009, 04:49 PM | #6 | |
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=X= |
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06-26-2009, 05:24 PM | #7 | |
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Must Have Feature
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This is really a good thread. Dale DePriest brings up a great point: putting the menu and other selections made into TTS. I am going to talk this up at Jinke and try to get this done. I am very, very in tune with the blind and those with bad vision. Our owner has vision problems and Astak is sensitive to problems like this. I also think that TTS has a long way to go. There are still pauses and gaps and vert little inflection in the machine voice. It is decent and useful... but TTS is in its infancy and can get a lot better. I used to work with the GPS community. Early GPS units also had problems with speech inflection and pattern and it improved with time. So... Dale's points, as always, are really great. Let me see what Astak can do to bring about a solution. Knowing Dale, as I do, he likely has the solution all worked out anyway. |
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06-26-2009, 05:56 PM | #8 |
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While I have empathy for the blind student(s) who may be impacted by this program, and I agree they could benefit from additional TTS features, and I hope Amazon can change the Kindle to work well for the blind:
I'm not really sure that a lawsuit that blocks the entire program is a) beneficial, b) politically helpful or c) necessary. It seems to me that if the blind student(s) receive their course materials in a manner they can use (braille, audio) in a timely fashion, they will not be at a disadvantage. Lawsuits and allegations of discriminatory practices just antagonize the school, the vendor and their fellow students. I'd be pretty ticked off if a pilot program got held hostage to a political agenda, even if it's justified. Also, if the school or textbook providers can't provide a braille, audio or other compatible resource in a timely fashion, I don't see how that is a flaw of an e-book reader. |
06-26-2009, 06:51 PM | #9 | |
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The law allows businesses to not market to the blind; it doesn't allow for schools that receive federal funding to discriminate against blind students by making some course materials (ebook readers, here) only available or useful to sighted students. I'm not sure a lawsuit is the answer, either. But I know that without lawsuits, an awful lot of institutions are willing to say "eh, it's just too much trouble to make things accessible to people with disabilities." |
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06-26-2009, 11:53 PM | #10 | |
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I.e. unless students will be graded on their ability to manipulate an e-book reader, the "course materials" is not the e-book reader itself but the content. That would have to be provided to a blind student in a timely fashion anyway. Plus, it's not like TTS is a brand new technology that Amazon invented from whole cloth. Apple has included a "speech" function that could read text aloud since the 1990's. |
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06-27-2009, 12:03 AM | #11 | ||
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However, it's likely that the universities are being given a case of Kindles full of textbooks to distribute to students, and there is no set of audio/braille format textbooks being offered to blind students at the same time. This is a trial run, a marketing test.... I suspect nobody considered that "marketing experiments" being run in an institution that receives government funding is held to much stricter standards than one being run on a random at-large populace. Quote:
It'll certainly be worth watching; accessibility laws don't get a lot of attention beyond businesses grumbling about adding ramps & handrails. |
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06-27-2009, 04:40 AM | #12 |
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I want everything possible for anyone with a disability that can help them made available, however others should not be forced to wait for things that could help them because they are not available yet for the blind.
What if the new book had some great and useful images and tables in it? that can not currently be replicated in Braille? are the students not allowed to get those new books? things can be taken a little too far and a lawsuit is in this case toofar. |
06-27-2009, 01:25 PM | #13 | |
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It can even help pre-schoolers if the books are developed although supporting AAX (audible) would be likely more useful in this case. |
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06-27-2009, 01:27 PM | #14 | |
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Dale |
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06-27-2009, 02:03 PM | #15 |
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I really wish people would link directly to articles. That is what we created the internet for!
http://www.teleread.org/2009/06/26/n...le-deployment/ |
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