Amazon recently released plans to make its electronic reading device, the Kindle, more accessible to blind and vision-impaired readers by summer 2010, prompting the University of Wisconsin to reconsider its stance on the devices.
UW experimented with using Amazon’s electronic reading devices in classrooms earlier this year but decided not to adopt the current version due to its inaccessibility to the blind.
Amazon plans to add an audible menu system, which would enable blind and vision-impaired readers to easily navigate to books. Additionally, Amazon will be increasing the font size options to include a new super-sized font, according to a statement released this week.
“It’s very welcome; this is terrific news,” said Ken Frazier, director of UW libraries. “The main problem with the Kindle was that it was strangely inaccessible to the blind. I say strangely because the Kindle has a lot of features — such as voice-to-text technology — that allows you to listen to a book, making the text audible.”
He added UW will reconsider its stance on Kindles if Amazon follows through on these plans.
UW was not the only school to find the Kindle unacceptable, Frazier said. He said the University of Illinois and Syracuse University also said if the Kindle is not made more accessible to the visually impaired, they would not use it on a large scale.
UW history Professor Jeremi Suri, who explored the new technology this past semester by using 20 Kindle DX’s in one of his upper-level history classes, said he was excited about the features the updated Kindle would contain.
“I think it’s a good sign of how we’ve had a positive influence on them (by) encouraging [Amazon] to do this,” Suri said.
Frazier agreed this has been a chance for the university to be a positive influence.
“I think this was an opportunity for the university to be a force for good and a way to shape the way new technology is shaped for the world,” Frazier said.
Frazier and Suri agreed the use of Kindles will create new possibilities for text and opportunities for the blind, because the number of books created in Braille were limited in comparison to what a Kindle could offer for the visually impaired.
Nonetheless, Frazier said even with the revisions to the Kindle, the device is not perfect.
“I think what we’re finding out about the Kindles is both good and bad right now,” Frazier said. “I think many students didn’t like the note-taking features on the Kindle — many people don’t like that you can’t tell what page you are on. … I think that some students are (still) going to want to buy books.”
Suri acknowledged certain qualities are lost in the transition from regular books to an electronic text, but certain advantages outweigh what the product lacks.
“There are many aesthetic qualities that are lost; it doesn’t have the same feel,” Suri said. “However, some things are gained by going to electronic textbooks such as accessibility, portability and the ability to download a book in a couple seconds.”
