The National Federation of the Blind has joined up with dozens of other organizations to form the Reading Rights Coalition, which is fighting for the right to use the Kindle 2′s text-to-speech function on any text without having to pay extra. You probably remember that when the Kindle 2 came out in February, the Authors Guild complained that text-to-speech was in violation of the audiobook rights of books, and Amazon backed down from a potential lawsuit by saying they would let authors disable the function on a case-by-case basis.
The Reading Rights Coalition says that’s discriminatory, because it interferes with technology that for the first time gives anyone who has problems reading print equal access to the same library of books as the sighted.
They’re holding a protest in NYC on Tuesday, April 7th (tomorrow) at the offices of the Authors Guild, but if you can’t make it you might want to visit their website and sign their petition showing your support for the right to use text-to-speech for print-disabled consumers.
By Alda Shepherd April 6, 2009 - 9:14 PM
Please let technology fulfill at least one of its promises, to freely disseminate information, in whatever form, as effortlessly as possible. Perhaps the AG should have their audiobook titles available for direct download to Kindle, at a price, just like the eink versions . . . I’d sure prefer a professional reader to the cyborg voice!