NFB and ACB File Suit against Arizona State University

Posted by Paul Schroeder on 6/26/2009 5:02:57 PM

Those of you that are following the Kindle debate might have heard the news that today the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) and the American Council of the Blind (ACB) filed suit against Arizona State University (ASU) to prevent the university from using the Amazon's Kindle DX electronic reading device to provide electronic textbooks to its students. As we have been reporting for the past few months, the Kindle cannot be used by blind students and by using it as a means of delivering information to students, the university would violate the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

The NFB and ACB have also filed complaints with the Office for Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Education and the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice asking for investigations of five other institutions: Case Western Reserve University, the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia, Pace University, Princeton University, and Reed College.

As we've stated many times on the blog, reiterated during the Reading Rights Coalition protest at the Authors Guild in NY, and heard from many of you, we cannot allow authors and publishers to decide what people with disabilities are permitted to read and America's institutions should not be permitted to discriminate against people with disabilities. Kudos to NFB and ACB for taking the lead in ensuring that technology is made accessible to both blind and sighted students. It's great to see these organizations working together.

You can learn more about the suit by reading NFB's press release.

Re: NFB and ACB File Suit against Arizona State University
Posted by Jake Joehl on 7/2/2009 5:04:39 PM

It's great to see these organizations actually working together on this issue. When I first learned that the ACB and NFB were actually supporting each other in this regard, I was shocked. Let's all hope for a positive outcome, but let's also hope that this will be the first of many collaborations between the two organizations.

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