‘A Gentle Whisper in Your Ear’

e-Accessibility – Allowing Every Person to Access e-Books ?

Globalization is not just an economic concept … it is a social reality in the 21st Century.

 

The recent legal settlement in the United States of America between the Authors Guild (USA) and Google, announced 2008-10-28, relates to the protection of authors’ rights during the course of Google’s Live Project to digitize every hardcopy book … of any type.  This settlement has consequences far beyond the jurisdiction of the USA.  Beware !

 

In the middle of all this consternation, and directly linked to many things I have been discussing over the past months … on 8th April 2009, I signed the following Petition …

 

 

Petition Target:  The Authors Guild (USA)

 

Sponsor:  Reading Rights Coalition (USA)

 

” When Amazon released the Kindle 2 electronic book reader on 9 February 2009, the company announced that the device would read e-books aloud using text-to-speech technology.  Under pressure from the Authors Guild (USA), Amazon announced that it will give authors and publishers the ability to disable the text-to-speech function on any or all of their e-books available for the Kindle 2.

 

The Reading Rights Coalition (USA), which represents people who cannot read print, is protesting against the threatened removal of the text-to-speech function from e-books for the Amazon Kindle 2.

 

The Coalition includes organizations which represent the blind, people with dyslexia, people with learning or processing issues, seniors losing vision, people with spinal cord injuries, people recovering from strokes, and many others for whom the addition of text-to-speech on the Kindle 2 promised to facilitate, for the first time, easy mainstream access to thousands and thousands of books.”

 

 

I added this Text to my Signature (#3238) …

 

” This action by the Authors Guild must now be clearly described and understood as a denial of basic human rights for a sizeable sector of the population in all of our societies.  Since 3 May 2008, when it became an International Legal Instrument … the 2006 United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities specifies, protects and guarantees these basic rights.  It is the stated intention of the Obama Administration that the USA will soon ratify this UN Convention.”

 

 

 

To Sign the Petition:  Go to … www.thepetitionsite.com/1/We-Want-To-Read

 

 

 

 

Tags: Amazon's Kindle 2 electronic book reader, Authors Guild (USA), basic human and social rights, consequences far beyond the jurisdiction of the USA, Globalization, Google, Google's Live Project to digitize every hardcopy book, International Legal Instrument, People with Activity Limitations (2001 WHO ICF), Petition, protection of authors' rights, Reading Rights Coalition (USA), recent legal settlement, Sustainability Implementation, Sustainable Human & Social Development, United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, United States of America