RSSUniversities reject Kindle DX as a textbook replacement
By Tim Conneally | Published November 11, 2009, 2:34 PM
Two universities running Kindle DX pilot programs have rejected the device as a potential textbook replacement, citing a poor feature set and the controversial accessibility issues. Primary among these is the text-to-speech capability.
This capability came under fire shortly after the Kindle 2 debuted, as the Author's Guild wanted writers to be compensated for the spoken "performance" of books, or otherwise have the text-to-speech function disabled.
Meanwhile, equal rights groups like the American Council for the Blind, the International Dyslexia Association, and the National Center for Learning Disabilities wanted the feature to be kept free and available as an aid to the visually or cognitively impaired.
The Author's Guild ultimately won and the text to speech feature became optional, an issue for the authors to decide individually.
Since the large screen Kindle DX debuted in the spring, a number of schools -- secondary and beyond -- ran pilot programs which tested the device's viability as a textbook replacement.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison and Syracuse University were two establishments running these pilot programs which recently decided not to adopt the device until its features are improved, including access to visually impaired students.
"The big disappointment was learning that the Kindle DX is not accessible to the blind. Advancements in text-to-speech technology have created a market opportunity for an e-book reading device that is fully accessible for everyone," Ken Frazier, the University of Wisconsin-Madison's director of libraries said. "This version of the Kindle e-book reader missed the mark. It is relatively easy to envision an improved e-book reading device that meets the needs of the entire university community. Such a device would include universal design for accessibility, higher-quality graphics, and improved navigation and note-taking. I think that there will be a huge payoff for the company that creates a truly universal e-book reader."
The National Federation of the Blind considers this a victory.
Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the National Federation of the Blind, said in a statement that the Federation "commends the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Syracuse University for rejecting broad deployment of the Kindle DX in its current form because it cannot be used by blind students and therefore denies the blind equal access to electronic textbooks. We do not oppose electronic textbooks; in fact, they hold great promise for blind students if they are accessible. But as long as the interface of the Kindle DX is inaccessible to the blind -- denying blind students access to electronic textbooks or the advanced features available to read and annotate them -- it is our position that no university should consider this device to be a viable e-book solution for its students."
This announcement comes just a day after Intel announced an e-reader designed especially for the visually impaired.
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|Looking at the Author's Guild's situation, it might seem like it's about money but it's more complicated. They are worried that if they don't fight it, they will waive their rights to enforce their copyrights.
There are two solutions: Do a licensing deal or get the law changed. Considering that a licensing deal will be examined carefully, as it will set a president, it would have to involve a large chunk of money.
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|*precedent
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|And if you had to wear special glasses just to read a blurry, watermarked textbook or have to spend aproximately 200 extra hours scanning something just so you could read it, while at the same time holding down two jobs to pay for said books and tuition, and trying to simultaneously keep up with six classes a semester? I doubt anyone who really values his time would be happy with this arrangement, especially when his peers don't have to deal with this amount of complexity, and more easily accessible methods of reading the text already exist. I have no issue with publishers protecting their content; that is their right. Specifically shutting out a class of individuals for any reason in the name of DRM is not, and it's insulting and shortsighted. Score my comments down all you like, but the issues pointed out in this article are real, and I'm glad someone put a stop to Amazon's project before things spun out of control.
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|Not true. I am blind and graduated with my bachelor's degree in business computer information systems last August. When I read of the pilot program for the DX, I was relieved that i had already completed my undergrad education since this device would have really made things much more challenging than they already were. Believe me; I had to fight for access in nearly every course I took-- not because I had uncooperative professors but because the university frankly didn't give a damn about making courses universally accessible. Often times, the profs, like most of the world, simply didn't know that access was even a problem. We already have to jump through hoops to pay for, and then manually scan, the books we need for class. The publishing companies already hate having to comply with the ADA (as can be demonstrated in the TTS issue earlier this year). I'm terrified of what they would do to those of us needing alternative access if Amazon's product was the only game in town. Thank goodness the pilot program failed!
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|What's there to be so worried about? The law is the law and the law is protecting the blind. If some content is only available via an ebook, no TTS, then the manufacturer will be forced to provide a printed copy of the book which you can then scan into TTS, etc. If the manufacturer DOES NOT/CANNOT, then the university is at fault and will need to compensate you, or probably hire someone to read you the ebook or some other fair remedy.
Then again, the universities knew they were the "last stop" and thus will be the MAIN PARTIES AT FAULT so they gave this specific reader the thumbs down.
But frankly, not every college textbook must be offered as TTS and not to all students. TTS is easily pirated (as an audio book), so the real solution would eventually probably be an artificial "barrier of entry" (much like your expensive book scanner) in the form of encrypted headsets for the blind only, probably together with "watermarking" the audio stream with your individual user ID. So a blind person (or a blind person's friend) who contemplated creating an audio-book of some text-book for the rest of the class/universe, will know that they can come back to him as the source...
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|I'm at odds with myself in relation to see ebooks as university texts. On one hand, it would have been absolutely awesome to just carry a notebook bag to class, vs. a bookbag big enough to fit 20lbs of books AND a notebook; on the other hand ebooks I think, would somewhat upset the economy of textbooks for school. Some kids are barely able to buy all of them in the first place, and get away with buying them used online or from school - you can't do that with an ebook.
Then, you have the fact that with the ebook you're saving millions of trees; then again, billions of kids walking around with an additional device that requires a. electricity and b. radiowaves, to operate correctly.
Just can't decide if it would be a blessing or curse.
Of course, in a world that's going tech anyway, it may not matter in a few years.
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|Stick with paper. It's a renewable resource. It will be cheaper in the long run. How many times do you think you'll be in the middle of class and the ebook runs out of batteries. Paper books don't do that.
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|There may be many reasons to dislike e-books, but that is not one of them. Any display, such as the Kindle and the Kindle DX, that uses electronic paper uses the battery only to change the contents of the display when you, for example, turn the page (or use wireless, but keep that off when you don't need it = problem solved). They maintain the contents of the display without using any power. In short, you'd have plenty of time to notice a dying battery before you need to, and even in the event it does die, not all is lost.
That being said, I'm still on week 2 of one charge on my Kindle DX's battery.
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|Paper is history (soon). Get with the program, people. And no, you're not gonna run out of battery simply because you'll have to run out of battery exactly once (which would equate to forgetting your textbook at home once) and you'll HOPEFULLY be smart enough to LEARN YOUR LESSON and carry a charger, extra batteries, or pay close attention to the SMART WARNINGS of your reader: "YOUR BATTERY WON'T LAST YOUR NEXT FOUR..THREE.TWO.. SCHOOL DAYS, BABY, PLEASE CHARGE NOW.. I KNOW YOU'RE HOME, I CAN SEE YOUR HOME WIFI..." And for repeat offenders (children): "EVEN THOUGH THERE ARE TWO DAYS OF BATTERY LEFT, THIS DEVICE WILL STOP WORKING IN 5 HOURS UNTIL YOU'VE PLUGGED IT TO THE WALL". Of course some parental code can override this restriction...
If the first few times you forget to charge are in your first grade, I'm pretty sure that by college time you'll master the extremely difficult task of responsibly & religiously charging your gear for school...
Of course, unlike with physical books, you cannot really expect a teacher to carry around a second full set of all textbooks in case some student forgot his book... But with digital books, the teacher can go to the teacher's room and within a min come back with your borrowed ebook reader, which will magically also have your homework answers on it (downloaded from a main server). You get a "bad point", but you can still do your work that day...
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|Call me cynical, but I suspect this has more to do with the billion dollar text book industry and their profits than it has to do with worrying about blind students.
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|Bingo. The amount of money they could lose is staggering. It sounds harsh to say but limiting a device's use because of a small percentage of the population reeks of economic interest than special.
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