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Amazon's accessible Kindle tablets
Transcript
6 October 2013
Roberta: Technology giant, Amazon, has kept its promise and released a number of products with improved features for blind and vision impaired users but as Media Access Australia’s online editor, Eliza Cussen, is here to tell us, it’s not all good news from Amazon headquarters. Hello, Eliza.
Eliza: Hi, Roberta.
Roberta: Now, can you tell us about Amazon’s new gadgets?
Eliza: Well, there are two new tablet computers that have just been released in America. They’re called the Kindle Fire and the Kindle Fire HDX. They’re updated versions of tablets that have been available for about a year and a half now. There is also a new version of the operating system that the Kindle Fires run on. That, they’re calling Mojito, for some reason. So the most famous Amazon device is the regular Kindle model, which is really just used to access eBooks. The Kindle Fires are a little bit different and they can be used as a basic touchscreen computer as well as an eBook reader, so they have extra functions.
Roberta: What makes them more accessible?
Eliza: Well, the biggest development in the suite of releases that Amazon has just done is the introduction of a screen reader. They’ve given her the name Ivona, which I quite like but I assume she speaks with an American accent, not an eastern European one. Ivona won’t be as sophisticated as something like JAWS or Voiceover but it will do the job for most things such as browsing the web and reading books. There’s also a screen magnifier, adjustable text size and high colour contrast for people with partial vision.
Roberta: Why have they only released accessible products now?
Eliza: Good question. These features sure have been a long time coming. Amazon has been under a lot of pressure from groups such as the National Federation of the Blind in the USA for, really, its incredibly poor track record on accessibility. When you look at competitors in the tablet market, such as Microsoft and Apple and Google, they’ve made great strides but we’re not seeing that progress in Amazon’s products. That’s particularly concerning considering Amazon has major contracts with American schools in the American education system. They supply a lot of the equipment for American school students and so obviously blind, vision impaired and students with other disabilities are at a real disadvantage there. So Amazon really only promised to include assistive features in response to this public pressure. The NFB actually held a protest which we talked about in December last year. They held a protest outside Amazon headquarters in Seattle and from that they promised to release these products, which is the new suites that have just been announced. So the good news with this, of course, is that the protest worked. Amazon did listen and this shows that even the biggest companies have to take disabled consumers seriously. In some ways it’s encouraging but it’s also concerning that that’s what it took to get them to release an accessible product.
Roberta: So can we expect only accessible products from Amazon from now on?
Eliza: Well, it would be quite dodgy of Amazon to develop these assistive features but not roll them out across everything. I mean, it would be incredibly surprising if the next release of products in a year, or year and a half, didn’t include the same features such as the Ivona. That being said, Amazon has, and a number of its competitors, just filed for exemption from laws which require them to make their products accessible. So while they are doing the right thing for now, it’s safe to say that they don’t want to be locked into doing it from now on.
Roberta: Well, maybe they don’t want another protest.
Eliza: Well, if I were Amazon that’s definitely how I’d be thinking.
Roberta: Exactly. Well, listeners, you can find more information about accessible technologies on the Media Access Australia website, www.mediaaccess.org.au. Thank you, Eliza, for all of that today.
Eliza: Thanks, Roberta.
Roberta: I know you’ll be keeping an eye on that one.
Eliza: A very close one.
Roberta: I’ve been speaking with Eliza Cussen from Media Access Australia. Eliza is the online editor. Now, as I said, you can find out more information about accessible technologies on the Media Access Australia website, www.mediaaccess.org.au. Media Access Australia is a supporter of this program.