DOJ Settles Kindle E-Book Reader Complaints With 4 Colleges
Encouraging college students to use Kindle e-book readers might not seem like a highway to high-profile federal litigation.
But that’s what led to a just-announced settlement between the U.S. Department of Justice and three well-known institutions of higher learning. Because the Kindle DX electronic reader offered by Amazon as part of a pilot program at six colleges and universities isn’t fully accessible to blind students, Case Western Reserve University, Pace University and Reed College agreed to stop promoting the device—or similar devices offered by other companies—to students, reports IDG News Service.
A settlement with Arizona State University was announced earlier this week in a similar Americans with Disabilities Act matter.
Although the Kindle DX can convert book text into synthesized speech, the same function isn’t offered for its menu and navigational controls, making it inaccessible to blind and vision-impaired students, the DOJ explains in a press release. Some users also complained that the text-to-speech function doesn’t work all that well.
The settlement resulted from complaints by the National Federation of the Blind and the American Council of the Blind.
Related coverage:
Associated Press (May 2009): “Reed College trying out new Kindle”
National Federation of the Blind (June 2009): “Lawsuit against Arizona State and complaints against Princeton, Reed, Pace, Darden School of Business and Case Western”
PR Newswire (DOJ press release): “Justice Department Reaches Three Settlements under the Americans with Disabilities Act Regarding the Use of Electronic Book Readers”
