¦ April 7, 2009
REQUEST TO SIGN PETITION FROM THE READING RIGHTS COALITION
Reprinted from NSCIA

As part of its role in the Reading Rights Coalition, NSCIA is engaged in a campaign to obtain access for people with print disabilities to e-books available for Amazon’s new Kindle 2 e-book reader. The new reader, which Amazon is working to make fully accessible, has the ability to use text-to-speech to read these e-books aloud; but under pressure from the Authors Guild, Amazon has announced that authors and publishers will be allowed to disable the text-to-speech function.  Please read and sign the petition.

"Language is fundamental to being human, and access to information - whether for education, entertainment or communication - is an integral part of life. In fact, it's how many living with disabilities find access to the information and resources they need to achieve the highest possible quality of life. Restricting that for any reason is not acceptable. Like screen readers and other forms of text to speech, electronic book readers will provide greater access to information for all people" K. Eric Larson, executive director and CEO of NSCIA, said recently.

More than 25 organizations have joined to form the Reading Rights Coalition, which has set up an on-line petition to urge the Authors Guild and Amazon to reverse course.

If you are using screen access technology, the first three fields on the form to sign the petition may not be announced. They are, in order: (1) a drop-down menu from which to select your prefix (Mr., Mrs., etc.); (2) an edit field for your first name, and (3) an edit field for your last name. The rest of the fields should announce themselves as you tab to them.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/We-Want-To-Read