It looks like the great techno- Geniuses wake up in a new world
every day. This press release was Emailed to two lists I am on
so you can probably find it if you want to read it, but the
American Counsel for the Blind (ACB) has raised the issue that
the new Kindle Fire appliance has no accessibility features
built in to it.
A few days ago, I heard Amazon's CEO crowing about what
wonderful things you could do with the Kindle Fire and I
wondered at the time if it had any kind of screen reader built
in to it especially after the knock-down drag-out fight that was
had not so long ago over previous Kindles that were used at
Arizona State University at least by all the sighted students.
All human beings make mistakes and big corporations are
just the sum of all the fallibility of their executives, but
this is beyond ridiculous.
Amazon got sued over the fiasco at Arizona State
University and settled by agreeing to fix the problems and make
the Kindle accessible.
One would think that they would be like the little boy
who got a swat on the bottom for some infraction and who might
be thinking, "I don't want that to happen again. I'll be really
good this time.
Well, that spot in the wood shed where corporal
punishment is percussively provided looks like it needs to be
occupied once again. I'd love to hear that same voice bellowing
a bit and promising to remember, next time.
Memory this short is worrisome and probably cause to seek medical
help.
Yes, I know we don't have to buy the Kindle Fire if we
can't use it, but not all electronic reading material can be
bought for all platforms. There will probably be more schools
and or business situations where the one-size-fits-all platform
that you are handed when you come in is the Kindle Fire. This is
what's wrong with not making everything accessible. It's not
like this has never come up before.
I've been messing with computers now for 32 years and
there was a time in which accessibility did mean a lot of extra
effort for limited reward, but that time is over.
Wonders after something like this, what's it going to
take to move on to a new normal where more things just work and
those that don't are being worked on?
Martin
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